Optical amplifiers have become a major element in the design of advanced optical systems. Their main characteristic is that they provide direct optical gain over a very wide bandwidth. In addition, they can support very high output powers and so are ideal for a number of analogue applications, such as CATV distribution. The wide bandwidth enables the simultaneous amplification of many signals at different wavelengths, making them ideal components to use in wavelength division multiplexed systems

Inspec keywords: wavelength division multiplexing; optical fibre amplifiers

Other keywords: direct optical gain; optical fibre amplifiers; wavelength division multiplexed systems; CATV distribution; WDM

Subjects: Multiplexing and switching in optical communication