Simulation and experimental characterization of Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifier with enhanced performance

We present simulation and experimental characterization of a hybrid amplifier comprising of a Raman amplifier and an erbium doped fiber (EDF) amplifier, with enhanced performance. The incorporation of a pumped EDF section in a fiber Raman amplifier (FRA) employing a dispersion compensating fiber is demonstrated to provide superior performance than a sole FRA system. The hybrid amplifier is characterized in terms of single channel gain and noise figure, and the results of measurements are shown to be in close agreement with the simulated results. Polarization-dependent gain (PDG) and multi-channel measured and simulated gain characterization of the Raman/EDFA hybrid amplifier are also presented.