Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022, pp.

32–38

Current Optics and Photonics Regular Paper

50 cm of Zirconia, Bismuth and Silica Erbium-doped Fibers for

Double-pass Amplification with a Broadband Mirror

Arni Munira Markom1*, Ahmad Razif Muhammad2,

Mukul Chandra Paul3, and Sulaiman Wadi Harun4
1
School of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA,
Cawangan Johor, Kampus Pasir Gudang, Johor 81750, Malaysia
2
Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor 43600, Malaysia
3
Fiber Optics and Photonics Division, CSIR-Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute,
Kolkata 700032, India
4
Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia

(Received July 16, 2021 : revised November 2, 2021 : accepted November 29, 2021)

Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) have saturated the technological market but are still widely
used in high-speed and long-distance communication systems. To overcome EDFA saturation and
limitations, its erbium-doped fiber is co-doped with other materials such as zirconia and bismuth. This
article demonstrates and compares the performance using three different fibers as the gain medium for
zirconia-erbium-doped fibers (Zr-EDF), bismuth-erbium-doped fibers (Bi-EDF), and commercial silica-
erbium-doped fibers (Si- EDF). The optical amplifier was configured with a double-pass amplification
system, with a broadband mirror at the end of its configuration to allow double-pass operation in the
system. The important parameters in amplifiers such as optical properties, optical amplification and
noise values were also examined and discussed. All three fibers were 0.5 m long and entered with dif-
ferent input signals: 30 dBm for low input and 10 dBm for high input. Zr-EDF turned out to be the most
relevant optical amplifier as it had the highest optical gain, longest transmission distance, highest aver-
age flatness gain with minimal jitter, and relevant noise figures suitable for the latest communication
technology.

Keywords : Bismuth fiber, Erbium doped fiber amplifier, Optical amplifier, Zirconia fiber
OCIS codes : ( 060.2320) Fiber optics amplifiers and oscillators; (060.2410) Fibers, erbium;
(140.4480) Optical amplifiers

I. INTRODUCTION mation bits [1]. The fiber amplifier is a powerful piece of

advanced communication technology and is based on wave-
The rapidly growing Internet traffic has dominated daily length division multiplexing (WDM). It is able to extend
life in global communication and has therefore become in- transmission distances to more than a thousand kilometres
dispensable for everyday life. With the use of fiber-to-the- without the need for restoration or external devices such as
home installations it has been proven that optical communi- repeaters. In fact, repeaters suffer more losses because they
cation systems are able to support high data rates, including require information to be converted into electrical signals
a transmission bandwidth that can carry trillions of infor- first before being regenerated by a transmitter.

*Corresponding author: [email protected], ORCID 0000-0001-5592-2369

Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work
is properly cited.
Copyright © 2022 Current Optics and Photonics
pISSN: 2508-7266 / eISSN: 2508-7274 https://doi.org/10.3807/COPP.2022.6.1.032
- 32 -
Current Optics and Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022 33

Rare-earth elements such as erbium (Er3+), praseodym- cation.

ium (Pr3+), ytterbium (Yb3+), terbium (Te3+), and thulium Si-EDF, also known as erbium-doped fiber (EDF), has
(Tm3+) are doped into silica-based fibers to realise a gain been a commercial and matured fiber for many applications
medium for optical fiber amplifiers [2–5]. Rare-earth-doped over the years [9, 10]. Meanwhile, the most recent Bi-EDF
fiber amplifiers are operated like a laser diode, without were bismuth-germanosilicate fiber and bismuth-hafnia sili-
feedback, and with their amplified signal. The most popular cate fibers [11, 12]. With the bismuth-germanosilicate fiber,
doped fiber amplifier is the erbium-doped fiber amplifier an optical gain of 40 dB was successfully achieved, but no
(EDFA), in which the erbium ion emission falls within 1550 result of the flatness enhancement was observed. Neverthe-
nm of the third communication window with the minimal less, a broadband transmission wavelength of 1515 to 1775
loss of the device [6]. nm is accomplished, defined from the C to L to the U band
In addition, EDFA is well established, reliable, inexpen- range telecommunication network [11]. Bismuth-hafnia
sive and produces a high optical gain up of to 40 dB, has silicate fibers achieved a flatness gain of 10.9 dB with a
a minimal noise figure (NF); does not tolerate loss of cou- maximum gain of 20.9 dB from 1520–1580 nm region [12].
pling to the network fibers; is flexible enough to be used Both experiments using 50 m fiber length as the gain me-
with fiber optic devices and telecommunications links; and dium.
offers polarization-insensitive amplification [7]. However, In the meantime, with a 1 m long Zr-EDF as a gain
due to the demand for compact devices, many processes medium, a flatness gain and a maximum optical gain of
these rare earth materials by mixing them with other ele- 19.5 dB and 40 dB from 1530 to 1570 nm have been ac-
ments to shorten and improve the mean efficiency. complished [13]. Then with a longer Zr-EDF of 4 and 6 m
Therefore, in order to improve amplifier performance, in length, flatness gain of 15.9 dB and 9.9 dB, respectively,
extensive research has been carried out on EDFAs using were achieved [14]. The goal of EDF is to composite with
various types of host and co-dopant materials such as bis- other materials like zirconia and bismuthate is to exceed
muth, zirconia, phosphate, thulium, and aluminium [8]. the limit of EDF due to the deterrent effect of the erbium
The EDFA is characterized by its optical gain and NFs. The itself [15]. Thus, in this experimental configuration, only
term gain is used broadly to describe the gain in optical 50 cm is used to perform an amplifier for compact device
amplifiers. Gain (G) is also known as the gain factor, mea- purposes.
sured in decibels and can be easily calculated as follows:
II. METHODS
G (dB) = 10 log10 (Pout/Pin). (1)
Figure 1 shows the experimental configuration for an
P in and P out are the input and output powers of the optical double pass amplifier using a broadband mirror. All
continuous-wave (CW) signal being amplified [7, 8]. Ad- three fibers of Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF and Si-EDF were used in
ditionally, the noise figure is another crucial parameter that the same experimental configuration and replaced in each
contributes to the amplifier performance. An amplifier’s experiment. The fibers were made as short as 50 cm to be
NF comes from the amplitude spontaneous emission (ASE) compatible with future compact devices. The gain medium
noise that originates from the combination of the needed was pumped forward though a 980 nm laser diode via a
coherent signals with unwanted incoherent ASE signals, 980/1550 nm wavelength division multiplex coupler which
when a gain medium of fiber is pumped by laser diodes. applied optical energy to the fibers to stimulate electrons
Large NF will cause to a small optical signal-to-noise into excited bands.
ratio (OSNR) for the amplifier to reaching the needed sig- A tunable laser source was used to provide accurate input
nal owing to the spontaneous emissions that grow the noise signals in conjunction with an optical attenuator for each
during the amplification process. The NF also uses the same wavelength from 1515 nm to 1620 nm. The performance of
unit as optical gain, decibels (dB), and is calculated via the amplifier was examined for two input signals: −30 dBm
for low input signals and −10 dBm for high input signals. A
NF = OSNRin / OSNRout. (2) circulator is used to launch the input signal from tunable la-
ser source (port 1) into the gain medium (port 2) and route
A large population inversion can reduce the amount of the amplified signal back into the optical spectrum analyzer
ASE noise by operating in a deep saturation region, us- for measurement (port 3). The broadband mirror was placed
ing many amplifiers, and placing isolators and bandpass at the end of the configuration to allow reflection of the de-
filters between amplifier stages [7, 8]. For this paper, three sired signal back to the configuration and create the double
types of fibers for gain mediums were compared for optical pass amplifier operation. Finally, the results of the optical
gain and NF to determine the performance of the EDFA. amplification and the NF were recorded by an optical spec-
The study used zirconia-erbium-doped fiber (Zr-EDF), trum analyzer.
bismuthate-erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) and a sole erbium
element of silica-based, erbium-doped fiber (Si-EDF) that
acted as gain mediums to perform the optical fiber amplifi-
34 Current Optics and Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022

III. FIBER SPECIFICATIONS als from bismuth ions, is to reduce the harmful effects of er-
bium concentrations [2, 7]. Such effects occur when a single
A detailed fabrication process for the homemade Zr-EDF erbium element used in silica fibers acts to limit concentra-
and Bi-EDF was published in our previous paper [16, 17]. tion doping and obtain optical amplification. Therefore, Zr-
The Zr-EDF was obtained from a fiber preform, which was EDF and Bi-EDF showed higher results for erbium-doped
fabricated in a ternary silica glass host consisting of Er2O3- concentration and absorption rates compared to Si-EDF, in
doped ZrO2 rich nano-crystalline particles, using a modified which had no other element doping in its fiber.
chemical vapour deposition (MCVD) in conjunction with For the index of refraction, all the three gain mediums
a solution doping process. The same MCVD process was shared an almost equal difference of 0.01. The refractive
used to fabricate Bi-EDF, where the fiber consisted of Er3+ index is expressed as the ratio of the speed of light in a
ions at a concentration of 7.6 × 1025 ions/m3, with a lan- vacuum to another substance [18]. Normal fibers have a
thanum ion co-dopant concentration of approximately 4.4 standard index of refraction of 1.55, which means that light
wt%. travels 1.55 times faster in a vacuum than within the fiber.
Table 1 presents the optical properties specifications for Thus, all the three gain mediums showed very small differ-
the three gain mediums of Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF and Si-EDF. ences, only 0.01 from the standard value. This shows that
For the first specification, Bi-EDF showed the highest erbi- they have roughly the same speed of light in their fibers.
um-doped concentration at 6300 ppm, followed by Zr-EDF NA is the acceptance angle of the fiber, which refers to
and Si-EDF with 4000 ppm and 2200 ppm, respectively. the maximum angle in the core of the fiber that is required
For the absorption rates, Bi-EDF showed the highest rate, for light to propagate [18]. By measuring the collected light
with 141 dB/m at a 1480 nm wavelength, followed by Zr- in the fibers, it was shown that the larger NA of Bi-EDF
EDF with 80 dB/m and Si-EDF with 23.0 dB/m at a 980 demonstrated the larger amount of light accepted compared
nm region. to Zr-EDF and Si-EDF.
The reason for doping EDF with other elements, such as
transition metals from zirconia ions and post-transition met-

FIG. 1. Experimental configuration for the proposed double pass using a broadband mirror.

TABLE 1. Optical properties specifications for Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF and Si-EDF

Types Zr-EDF Bi-EDF Si-EDF
Erbium-Doped Concentration (ppm) 4000 6300 2200
80.0 dB/m at 980 nm 23.0 dB/m at 980 nm
Absorption Rate 141 dB/m at 1480 nm
220.0 dB/m at 1550 nm 40.0 dB/m at 1530 nm
Refractive Index Difference 0.012 0.01 0.01
Numerical Aperture (NA) 0.17 0.2 0.17
Current Optics and Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022 35

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION pumping power of −37 dBm, while Si-EDF stopped at −39
dBm pumping power. For broadband transmission, Zr-EDF
Figure 2 is an optical spectrum for Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF and showed the broadest transmission wavelength from 1520
Si-EDF at three different pump powers of 70 mW, 150 mW nm to 1580 nm with a total distance of 60 nm.
and 230 mW. The reason the pumping power stopped at Meanwhile, the total distance for Si-EDF was 50 nm
230 mW is because this was the surge line and there were from 1520 nm to 1570 nm and Bi-EDF was only 40 nm
no changes to further improve most of the spectra. The Zr- from 1540 nm up to 1580 nm. The reason for the large
EDF and Bi-EDF fibers achieved almost the same peak transmission capacity of Zr-EDF was the high concentra-

(a)

(b)

(c)

FIG. 2. Optical spectrum: (a) Zr-EDF, (b) Bi-EDF, and (c) Si-EDF.
36 Current Optics and Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022

tion of EDFs. In addition, the pump power was set to 980 and Si-EDF were 26 dB, 20 dB and 22 dB, respectively,
nm, which was close to the absorption wavelength of Zr- from the 1520 nm to 1580 nm wavelength region. The rea-
EDF and Si-EDF. son is due to the higher erbium doping concentration in the
50 cm of gain medium was utilised for the experimental Zr-EDF, which consequently enhanced the number of ex-
configuration which is designated at future compact device cited ions able to be stimulated compared to the other fibers
applications for the three fibers of Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF and Si- [2, 13]. Additionally, the massive amount of erbium ion
EDF. Two different input pump power of −30 dBm and −10 concentrate increased the gain bandwidth of the amplifier
dBm signals were investigated for two important param- to the L-band range.
eters of optical gain and NF. In fiber communications and When the input signal was increased to −10 dBm, a flat-
fiber laser technology, an optical gain is a crucial parameter ness gain for all the optical gains was developed. Flatness
used to define the efficiency of transmission amplification, gain is important for long-haul communication systems.
which is generated from a stimulated emission process. A fluctuation of optical gain will cause losses in a single
Figure 3 shows an optical gain spectrum with different amplifier [18]. Therefore, long distance communication,
input signals: (a) −30 dBm for low input signals, and (b) which require many amplifiers, will cause large amounts of
−10 dBm for high input signals. The gain analysis con- total loss to be sustained from the accumulated loss of each
sisted of Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF and Si-EDF versus wavelengths amplifier. This will affect the stability and efficiency of the
from 1520 nm to 1620 nm. At input signal −30 dBm, all long-haul communication network.
three optical gains illustrated the same trendline, where it As a comparison, all flatness gains for each of the fibers
increased at the C-band wavelength of 1520 nm and de- were standardised for the 45 nm distance. From 1525 nm
creased slowly at the L-band wavelength of 1565 nm. Then, to 1570 nm, Zr-EDF produced the highest flatness gain of
Zr-EDF obtained the highest peak optical gain with 34 dB 20 dB, with low fluctuations of 2.4 dB. Then, Bi-EDF’s
at 1530 nm wavelength, followed by Si-EDF with 31 dB at flatness gain was at 16.4 dB from 1530 nm to 1575 nm,
1530 nm wavelength and Bi-EDF with 27 dB at 1555 nm with high fluctuations of 5.0 dB produced. Finally, Si-EDF
wavelength. The average optical gain for Zr-EDF, Bi-EDF performed similarly to Bi-EDF, at 16.1 dB from 1520 nm
to 1565 nm, but struggled more with fluctuations than both
Zr-EDF and Bi-EDF at 2.0 dB. The high and wide flatness
gain of Zr-EDF was due to the efficient population inver-
sion of the pump power of −10 dBm.
Figure 4 shows the NFs for the three fibers with differ-
ent input signals, 4(a) −30 dBm and 4(b) −10 dBm. The
NFs, or better known as losses, increased due to the ASE
noise generated at the desired optical gains during the am-
plification process. These NFs influenced the value of the
OSNR of the optical amplifier, which defined its stability
according to the amplifier power. At the input signal of −30
dBm, Zr-EDF showed the lowest average NF of 11.3 dB,
followed by Si-EDF and Bi-EDF with 13 dB and 14 dB,
respectively. With an input signal of −10 dBm, the average
(a) NF for Zr-EDF and Si-EDF was 13 dB, but Bi-EDF pro-
duced an even larger NF of 18 dB.
The proposed fiber amplifier showed a reasonably low
NF comparatively, especially at the C-band region, for the
three fiber amplifiers, especially Zr-EDF. This is attributed
to the majority of upper-level ions that had been used for
amplification, which decreased the ASE noise, thus reduc-
ing the NF in the amplifier’s system.
However, Bi-EDF showed difficulties in suppressing
NF, although it has a higher amount of erbium doping com-
pared to Zr-EDF. Bi-EDF’s large NA created difficulties
in compatibility with other single mode fibers and other
photonic devices that used a standard fusion splicer (Corn-
ing® HI980; Corning, NY, USA) [19]. That being said, the
results of Bi-EDF would cause high losses due to incon-
(b)
sistency in splicing between these fibers. However, the Bi-
FIG. 3. Optical gain spectrum at different input signals: (a) EDF can still achieve excellent optical gain even though its
−30 dBm and (b) −10 dBm. laser pumping range is not close to its absorption rate. The
Current Optics and Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022 37

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Arni Munira Markom and co-authors thank the Malay-

sian Ministry of Higher Education for funding this research
work.

REFERENCES

1. S. U. Rehman, S. Ullah, P. H. J. Chong, S. Yongchareon, and

D. Komosny, “Visible light communication: a system perspec-
tive—overview and challenges,” Sensors 19, 1153 (2019).
2. M. C. Paul, S. W. Harun, N. A. D. Huri, A. Hamzah, S. Das,
(a)
M. Pal, S. K. Bhadra, H. Ahmad, S. Yoo, M. P. Kalita, A. J.
Boyland, and J. K. Sahu, “Wideband EDFA based on erbium
doped crystalline zirconia yttria alumino silicate fiber,” J.
Lightwave Technol. 28, 2919-2924 (2010).
3. L. Chorchos and J. P. Turkiewicz, “Experimental performance
of semiconductor optical amplifiers and praseodymium-doped
fiber amplifiers in 1310-nm dense wavelength division multi-
plexing system,” Opt. Eng. 56, 046101 (2017).
4. R. Piccoli, A. Rovere, Y.-G. Jeong, Y. Jia, L. Zanotto, F. Lé-
garé, B. E. Schmidt, R. Morandotti, and L. Razzari, “Extremely
broadband terahertz generation via pulse compression of an
Ytterbium laser amplifier,” Opt. Express 27, 32659-32665
(2019).
(b) 5. E. Lee, J. Luo, B. Sun, J. Ji, V. L. Ramalingam, X. Yu, and
Q. Wang, “Flat-gain wide-band thulium-based fiber laser,” in
FIG. 4. NFs at different input signals: (a) −30 dBm and (b) Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Pacific Rim (Optical
−10 dBm. Society of America, 2018), paper F1A.5.
6. J.-B. Trinel, G. L. Cocq, E. R. Andresen, Y. Quiquempois, and
results would have been different if a 1480 nm laser pump L. Bigot, “Latest results and future perspectives on few-mode
had been used for this experiment, but we were limited erbium doped fiber amplifiers,” Opt. Fiber Technol. 35, 56-63
by the laser diode limitation. Moreover, Almukhtar et al. (2017).
[20], demonstrated a Zr-EDF amplifier using 1480 nm laser 7. H. Venghaus and N. Grote, Fiber optic communication: key
pump and achieved a flat gain and low NF from the C to L devices, 2nd ed. (Springer, Switzerland. 2017).
band regions. 8. B. Mukherjee, I. Tomkos, M. Tornatore, P. Winzer, and Y.
Zhao, Springer Handbook of Optical Networks (Springer,
V. CONCLUSION Switzerland. 2020).
9. M. J. F. Digonnet, Rare-Earth-Doped Fiber Lasers and Ampli-
All three fiber performances in the amplifier, using Zr- fiers, Revised and Expanded, 2nd ed. (CRC Press, USA. 2001).
EDF, Bi-EDF and Si-EDF, were demonstrated and dis- 10. A. W. Naji, B. A. Hamida, X. S. Cheng, M. A. Mahdi, S. Ha-
cussed in terms of optical specification, optical spectrum, run, S. Khan, W. F. AL-Khateeb, A. A. Zaidan, B. B. Zaidan,
optical gain and NFs at various input signals of −30 dBm and H. Ahmad, “Review of erbium-doped fiber amplifier,” Int.
and −10 dBm. From all the three fibers, Zr-EDF turned out J. Phys. Sci. 6, 4674-4689 (2011).
to be the most relevant optical amplifier with the highest 11. S. V. Firstov, K. E. Riumkin, A. M. Khegai, S. V. Alyshev, M.
optical gain of 37 dB, the widest transmission distance at A. Melkumov, V. F. Khopin, F. V. Afanasiev, A. N. Guryanov,
60 nm from 1520 nm to 1580 nm, highest average flatness and E. M. Dianov, “Wideband bismuth-and erbium-codoped
gain of 20 dB with low fluctuation of 2.4 dB, and the most optical fiber amplifier for C+ L+ U-telecommunication band,”
relevant NF which is suitable for advanced communications Laser Phys. Lett. 14, 110001 (2017).
nowadays. 12. A. A. Al-Azzawi, A. A. Almukhtar, P. H. Reddy, D. Dutta, S.
Das, A. Dhar, M. C. Paul, U. N. Zakaria, H. Ahmad, and S.
FUNDING W. Harun, “Compact and flat-gain fiber optical amplifier with
Hafnia-bismuth-erbium co-doped fiber,” Optik 170, 56-60
Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (RAC- (2018).
ER/1/2019/TK04/UITM//3). 13. A. M. Markom, M. C. Paul, A. Dhar, S. Das, M. Pal, S. K.
Bhadra, K. Dimyati, M. Yasin, and S. W. Harun, “Performance
38 Current Optics and Photonics, Vol. 6, No. 1, February 2022

comparison of enhanced erbium–zirconia–yttria–aluminum 17. H. Ahmad, S. Shahi, and S. W. Harun, “Bismuth-based erbi-
co-doped conventional erbium-doped fiber amplifiers,” Op- um-doped fiber as a gain medium for L-band amplification
tik 132, 75-79 (2017). and Brillouin fiber laser,” Laser Phys. 20, 716-719 (2010).
14. A. A. Almukhtar, A. A. Al-Azzawi, S. Das, A. Dhar, M. C. 18. G. P. Agrawal, Fiber-optic Communication Systems (John Wi-
Paul, Z. Jusoh, S. W. Harun, and M. Yasin, “An efficient L- ley & Sons. USA. 2012).
band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with zirconia-yttria-alumi- 19. M. C. Paul, S. W. Harun, N. A. D. Huri, A. Hamzah, S. Das, M.
num co-doped silica fiber,” J. Non Oxide Glasses 10, 65-70 Pal, S. K. Bhadra, H. Ahmad, S. Yoo, M. P. Kalita, A. J. Boy-
(2018). land, and J. K. Sahu, “Performance comparison of Zr-based
15. S. W. Harun, R. Akbari1, H. Arof, and H. Ahmad, “Mode- and Bi-based erbium-doped fiber amplifiers,” Opt. Lett. 35,
locked bismuth-based erbium-doped fiber laser with stable and 2882-2884 (2010).
clean femtosecond pulses output,” Laser Phys. Lett. 8, 449 20. A. A. Almukhtar, A. A. Al-Azzawi, X. S. Cheng, P. H. Reddy,
(2011). A. Dhar, M. C. Paul, H. Ahmad, and S. W. Harun, “Enhanced
16. M. C. Paul, A. Dhar, S. Das, M. Pal, S. K. Bhadra, A. M. Mar- triple-pass hybrid erbium doped fiber amplifier using distri-
kom, N. S. Rosli, A. Hamzah, H. Ahmad, and S. W. Harun, bution pumping scheme in a dual-stage configuration,” Op-
“Enhanced erbium–zirconia–yttria–aluminum co-doped fiber tik 204, 164191 (2020).
amplifier,” IEEE Photonics J. 7, 7102307 (2015).