Gain and Noise Figure of a Double-Pass Waveguide Amplifier Based on Er/Yb-Doped Phosphate Glass

A waveguide amplifier is fabricated by Ag⁺--Na⁺ two-step ion exchange on Er/Yb-doped phosphate glass. The spectroscopic performance of glass and the properties of channel waveguide are characterized. A double-pass configuration is adopted to measure the gain and noise figure (NF) of the waveguide amplifier, and the comparison of gain and NF for the single and double-pass configuration of the waveguide amplifier is presented. The results show that the double-pass configuration can make the gain increase from 8.8dB (net gain 2.2dB/cm) of the single-pass one to 14.6dB (net gain 3.65dB/cm) for small input power at 1534nm, and the NF are all lower than 5.5dB for both the configurations.