With the use of pulsed pumping, an optical fiber amplifier with all-fiber structure is developed based on the fused tapered fiber combiner and Yb+{3+}-doped double cladding fiber (YDCF). From the experimental results, 47-dBm peak power and 100-ns pulse duration are obtained when the repetition rate of pumping pulses is 100 Hz. The gain of the amplifier is up to 30 dB. It is shown that due to the use of pulsed pumping, pump light emits only when the signal light reaches the amplifier and thus the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) is significantly suppressed.

We have proposed and demonstrated a double-pass ytterbium-doped fiber amplifier using an optical circulator and a fiber Bragg grating as reflector. When the signal has passed through the ytterbium-doped fiber once, it reflects off a 0.2-nm passive fiber Bragg grating filter. This reduces amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) noise from the first pass. The input signal light is amplified both forward and backward through ytterbium-doped fiber. With this double-pass configuration, 1053.15-nm unsaturated signal gain of 28 dB, gain coefficient of 1.1 dB/mW, and noise figure of less than 4 dB are achieved at 977-nm pump power of 68 mW. It is also found that this double-pass configure provides enhancing gain coefficient and improving noise figure by comparison with single-pass configuration.