Efficient Pumping Scheme for EDFAs with Shared Pump Laser

We propose and demonstrate a power-efficient pump-sharing scheme for erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. Pump power emerging from N-1 out of N amplifiers is re-used in our approach, and is therefore always more efficient than simple power splitting of a single pump. The efficiency rises dramatically for amplifiers operating in an unsaturated or lightly saturated regime.