Open AccessRadiation hardening techniques for Er/Yb doped optical fibers and amplifiers for space application
Author(s) -
Sylvain Girard,
Marilena Vivona,
Laurent Arnaud,
Benoît Cadier,
Claude Marcandella,
Thierry Robin,
Emmanuel Pinsard,
Aziz Boukenter,
Y. Ouerdane
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.008457
Subject(s) - materials science , amplifier , optical fiber , optics , radiation hardening , optical amplifier , cerium , erbium , radiation , ytterbium , optoelectronics , core (optical fiber) , doping , fiber amplifier , fiber , laser , composite material , cmos , physics , metallurgy
We investigated the efficiencies of two different approaches to increase the radiation hardness of optical amplifiers through development of improved rare-earth (RE) doped optical fibers. We demonstrated the efficiency of codoping with Cerium the core of Erbium/Ytterbium doped optical fibers to improve their radiation tolerance. We compared the γ-rays induced degradation of two amplifiers with comparable pre-irradiation characteristics (~19 dB gain for an input power of ~10 dBm): first one is made with the standard core composition whereas the second one is Ce codoped. The radiation tolerance of the Ce-codoped fiber based amplifier is strongly enhanced. Its output gain decrease is limited to ~1.5 dB after a dose of ~900 Gy, independently of the pump power used, which authorizes the use of such fiber-based systems for challenging space missions associated with high total doses. We also showed that the responses of the two amplifiers with or without Ce-codoping can be further improved by another technique: the pre-loading of these fibers with hydrogen. In this case, the gain degradation is limited to 0.4 dB for the amplifier designed with the standard composition fiber whereas 0.2 dB are reported for the one made with Ce-codoped fiber after a cumulated dose of ~900 Gy. The mechanisms explaining the positive influences of these two treatments are discussed.