optical amplifier

communications

Learn about this topic in these articles:

lasers

  • laser components: cutaway view
    In laser: Laser elements

    …laser would just be an optical amplifier, which can amplify light from an external source but not generate a beam internally. Elias Snitzer, a researcher at American Optical, demonstrated the first optical amplifier in 1961, but such devices were little used until the spread of communications based on fibre optics.

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optical transmissions

  • electron hole: movement
    In materials science: Optical transmission

    A new approach, called optical amplifiers, has been developed for deployment in transoceanic fibre-optic cables. Unlike traditional repeaters, optical amplifiers work by adding photons to a light signal without changing it to an electrical signal and without changing its bit-rate. Since they can be used at any desired transmission…

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