37.2 dB small-signal gain from Er/Yb Co-doped fiber amplifier with 20 mW pump power

An efficient erbium–ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier (EYDFA) is demonstrated by forward and backward pumping a 3 m erbium/ytterbium co-doped fibers (EYDF) in single- and double-pass configurations using a 20 mW pump. At the input signal wavelength of 1536 nm, the forward- and backward-pumped double-pass amplifiers achieved a maximum low-signal gain of 37.2 and 28.6 dB and a corresponding noise figure of 5.4 and 10.8 dB, respectively. Whereas, the forward- and backward-pumped single-pass amplifiers (at the same wavelength) achieved a maximum low-signal gain of 20.0 and 22.2 dB and a corresponding noise figure of 4.6 and 10.3 dB, respectively. The double-pass design offers an economical solution to high-efficiency and high-gain optical amplifiers.