INO Goes With Thulium

SAINTE FOY, Quebec -- INO is proud to announce new advancements concerning S-band amplification in a bench-top instrument using thulium doped fluoride fiber pumped by laser diodes at 1055 nm. Recent research on this subject at INO, has permitted to demonstrate gain of more than 20 dB in the 1450-1485 nm range with a noise figure of less than 5.5 dB. Furthermore, preliminary results are encouraging concerning amplification from 1485 nm to 1500 nm with continuous efforts being deployed in order to extend the amplification over the entire band using compact and robust laser diodes. The amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) produced by this unit allows it to be used as an ASE source. The latest results show average power levels superior than –20 dBm/nm from 1450 nm to 1500nm. “The fact that the amplification in the S-band is provided by butterfly-packaged diodes,” said Dr.Jocelyn Lauzon, Director of the Photonic and Guided-Wave Optics Sector, “is innovative and imperative to keeping costs down and reducing the size of the optical components as the communication bandwidth explores new transmission wavelengths.” INO