High gain limiting erbium-doped fiber amplifier with wide dynamic range

摘要

An optical limiting amplifier is disclosed having a high gain over a wide dynamic range of input power levels. The amplifier has an input stage (102) and an output stage (103), each of which includes an erbium- doped fiber amplifier (104, 106). The erbium-doped fiber amplifier in the input stage provides a high gain in order to saturate the amplifier in the second stage. The erbium-doped fiber amplifier in the output stage is fabricated with a small core diameter to saturate at reasonably small signal levels, and has a relatively lower total number of erbium ions in order to limit amplification once deep saturation is reached.