Presenting an introduction to optical amplification, this book stresses the importance of the interrelation of materials properties, optical properties, and systems aspects of optical fiber amplifiers. It also includes a floppy disk that contains PC based educational version of the sophisticated commercial amplifier simulation package OASIX.

"Erbium Fiber Amplifiers" is a comprehensive introduction to the increasingly important topic of optical amplification. Written by three Bell Labs pioneers, the book stresses the importance of the interrelation of materials properties, optical properties, and systems aspects of optical fiber amplifiers. The floppy disk included with the book contains a PC based educational version of the sophisticated commercial amplifier simulation package OASIX (sold by the Specialty Fiber Group of Lucent Technologies). This powerful numerical simulation software allows one to simulate the performance of a real erbium fiber amplifier, and obtain its properties such as signal gain and noise generated. Several parameter sets are included, each of which represents a commercially available type of erbium doped fiber used in different kinds of amplifiers (e.g. preamplifiers and power amplifiers). The user can vary, via Windows based input screens, various amplifier characteristics such as fiber length, pump power, signal power, and additional signals. The output is saved in a file which can be read by any spreadsheet or plotting package for graphical representation of the results. The software allows the reader to explore on his or her own the concepts of amplifier performance discussed in the book, and gain a more intuitive and interactive educational experience leading to a richer understanding of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and their applications. It includes a software disk with a PC-based amplifier simulation tool derived from a sophisticated commercial package (OASIX), which allows the reader to gain an interactive educational experience using parameters for commercially available erbium-doped fibers. It explains the theory of noise in optically amplified systems in an intuitive way. The book contains a discussion of components used in amplifier fabrication and of the attendant technologies used in real systems. The book provides basic tools for amplifier design as well as systems engineering, including the latest developments in WDM and soliton systems. The book discusses the fundamentals of rare earth ions for the reader desiring more depth in the topic. The book is for either the novice of experienced reader, and the chapters have links between them to allow the reader to understand the relationship between the amplifier characteristics, noise, and systems applications. The book also contains extensive references.