Spectral Hole Burning (SHB) phenomenon in Optical Networks

Spectral Hole Burning (SHB)

Spectral hole burning (SHB) is a major limitation of amplified WDM systems with high channel count. The main reason lies in the fact that there is no possibility of compensating for this effect.

• Due to the inhomogeneous portion of the linewidth broadening of the dopant ions, the gain spectrum has an inhomogeneous component and gain saturation occurs, to a small extent, in an inhomogeneous manner. This effect is known as spectral hole burning because a high power signal at one wavelength can ‘burn’ a hole in the gain for wavelengths close to that signal by saturation of the inhomogeneously broadened ions. Spectral holes vary in width depending on the characteristics of the optical fiber in question and the power of the burning signal, but are typically less than 1 nm at the short wavelength end of the C-band, and a few nm at the long wavelength end of the C-band. The depth of the holes are very small, though, making it difficult to observe in practice.

• • In addition, accurate predictions are very difficult to carry out. SHB acts as a selective oversaturation of specific erbium ion classes due to a precise matching of the signal wavelength with their corresponding Stark energy sublevels. Gain contributions of a given ion class to the overall amplifier gain spectrum will be dependent on the specific values of energy of the related Stark sublevel (determined by inhomogeneities in the local electric field in the glass as opposed to on the crystal) and of their population density (i.e. of the related induced saturation). Clearly, the overall gain spectrum of the amplifier may be distorted due to this SHB effect. The best-known induced distortion is the hole induced in the gain spectrum in the spectral vicinity of a saturated channel.
  • This gives rise to a hole in the gain profile around the saturating channel wavelength, whose width is determined by temperature. Increasing temperature will increase this homogeneous broadening (and thus the hole width at the expense of its depth) while lower temperatures will reduce and make this hole deeper in the gain profile. . Since it is not possible to operate the amplifier at a lower temperature where the effect of homogeneous broadening vanishes, the system designer should account for the holes induced by each signal channel in the amplifier gain profile at room temperature