Radiation hardened high-power Er 3+ /Yb 3+ -codoped fiber amplifiers for free-space optical communications

Ayoub Ladaci (1, 2, 3) , Sylvain Girard (1) , Luciano Mescia (2) , Arnaud Laurent (3) , Carine Ranger (3) , David Kermen (3) , Thierry Robin (3) , Benoit Cadier (3) , Mathieu Boutillier (4) , Baidy Sane (1) , Emmanuel Marin (1) , Adriana Morana (1) , Youcef Ouerdane (1) , Aziz Boukenter (1)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien [Saint Etienne]
2 Politecnico di Bari
3 iXBlue Photonics
4 CNES - Centre National d’Études Spatiales [Paris]

The radiation responses of different high-power erbium/ytterbium-codoped fiber amplifiers (HP-EYDFA) have been investigated up to 100 krad (SiO2) dose levels. These devices are able to deliver 20 W of signal output power at 1565 nm by pumping at 915 nm (43 W) radiation tolerant (Er/Yb) or radiation hardened (ErYbCe) active few mode fibers; these performances are needed for free-space communications between low-orbit satellites and ground transceivers. X-ray irradiation results show that, thanks to a positive influence of the photo- and thermal-bleaching phenomena associated with such high-power operating conditions, the gain degradation levels of HP-EYDFA based on radiation hardened fibers remain below 6% after 100 krad at an accelerated dose rate of 3.4 rad/s.

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

Ayoub Ladaci, Sylvain Girard, Luciano Mescia, Arnaud Laurent, Carine Ranger, et al.. Radiation hardened high-power Er 3+ /Yb 3+ -codoped fiber amplifiers for free-space optical communications. Optics Letters, 2018, 43 (13), pp.3049. ⟨10.1364/OL.43.003049⟩. ⟨ujm-01964799⟩