FIFO-less Core-pumped Multicore Erbium-doped Fiber Amplifier with Hybrid Passive Components

We demonstrate a FIFO-less core-pumped multicore erbium-doped fiber amplifier (MC-EDFA) based on hybrid passive components for the first time. The passive element possesses the combination functions of an isolator, a wavelength-division multiplexer, and a pump fan-in device. By virtue of two-stage configuration, the average gain and the maximum noise figure of the MC-EDFA are 16.5 dB and 6.5 dB over a bandwidth of 6 THz. The core-to-core gain variation is less than 1 dB. The output power per core is boosted to 22.5 dBm while the inter-core crosstalk is below -46 dB.