1480 nm pumped erbium doped fibre amplifier with all optical automatic gain control

A 15 dB, gain controlled, 1480 nm pumped, erbium doped silica fibre amplifier is demonstrated with < 0.2 dB of gain variation for signal input levels up to –5 dBm. Gain control is effected by concomitant lasing at 1520 nm using Bragg grating reflectors. No error rate penalty is observed for a signal modulated at 2.5 Gbit/s.