Impact of pump-signal overlap in S+C+L band discrete Raman amplifiers

Opt Express. 2020 Jun 8;28(12):18440-18448. doi: 10.1364/OE.392258.

Abstract

We experimentally investigate the impact of pump-signal overlap in ultra-wideband (>13THz) Raman amplifiers and measure the transmission penalty on 30GBaud PM-QPSK signals due to adjacent Raman pumps in a 15dB gain, 150nm (∼18.8THz) S+C+L-band discrete Raman amplifier. We present an efficient numerical model to predict the performance penalty induced by crosstalk from Rayleigh backscattered light from backward-propagating Raman pumps showing good agreement with the experimental results. A 4nm guard-band must be retained around an overlapping Raman pump based on typical, commercial semiconductor laser pump diodes to ensure a negligible transmission penalty in S-band.