Rare-earth-doped fiber lasers and amplifiers have revolutionized the field of optical communications. Amplifiers allow propagating multiple-wavelength light signals modulated at extremely high bit rates along fibers thousands of kilometers long. Fiber lasers provide coherent light emission in wavelength regions (ultraviolet to mid-infrared) and with power and coherence properties not available from diode lasers. This course describes the spectroscopy of rare-earth-doped glass fibers, the operating principles of the laser and amplifier devices based on these fibers, and the basic mathematical models that describe their performance. It also provides a broad overview of the different types of fiber lasers and amplifiers, as well as detailed descriptions of cornerstone devices, such as Er-doped fiber amplifiers, Raman fiber amplifiers, and high-power Yb-doped and Nd-doped fiber master-oscillator power amplifiers. The performance and characteristics of numerous representative devices are reviewed, including the configuration, threshold, conversion efficiency, and polarization behavior of fiber lasers, and the pumping schemes, gain, noise, and polarization dependence of fiber amplifiers.

Rare-earth-doped fiber amplifiers have revolutionized the field of optical communications. Amplifiers allow propagating multiple-wavelength light signals modulated at extremely high bit rates along fibers thousands of kilometers long. This functionality has revolutionized the way we communicate, in particular by making the fast Internet an economical reality. This course describes the spectroscopy of rare-earth-doped glass fibers, the principles of the amplifiers based on these fibers, and basic mathematical models describing their operation. It also provides a broad overview of Raman fiber amplifiers. The performance of representative experimental devices is reviewed, including the configuration, pumping schemes, gain, efficiency, gain saturation, noise, and polarization dependence.