Experimental realization of a novel dispersion- compensating optical fiber amplifier for simultaneous compensation of positive dispersion and losses

Erbium-doped dispersion-compensating optical fiber (EDCF) has been theoretically simulated and experimentally fabricated using Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) for optimum operation at 5.0 km. It is optimized for both gain as well as negative dispersion. The erbium has been doped into the cladding region while the core of the optical fiber is chosen to be narrow so as to have a high negative dispersion. Measured gain of 3.1 dB at 200 m using 100 mW pumping power (980 nm wavelength) at 1550 nm has been obtained and the gain of 32 dB at 5.0 km using same pumping scheme has been predicted. The chromatic dispersion of this EDCF has been also measured to be −43.5 ps/km-nm at 1550 nm and thus, providing the dispersion of −217.5 ps/nm at 5 km. The bend-induced losses are found to be negligible. We are the first to report the experimental realization of EDCF.