Patent ID: 6501593
Filing Date: 2002-12-31
Classification: H01S,H04B

Abstract:
A multispectral light source for a Raman amplifier, comprising:a pump configured to provide pump light to an optical fiber while a wavelength division multiplex, WDM, optical signal, with a signal bandwidth of at least 20 nm, propagates though the optical fiber, including a plurality of semiconductor lasers, each of which is configured to produce light at a different central wavelength, and respective wavelength intervals between the different central wavelengths are in an inclusive range of 6 nm through 35 nm, and said pump light being within a pump band that is divisible by a middle wavelength into a shorter wavelength side and a longer wavelength side, the middle wavelength being a median of a shortest central wavelength and a longest central wavelength of the pump lights included in the pump band, and the shorter wavelength side includes pump lights having only central wavelengths shorter than the middle wavelength, and the longer wavelength side includes pump lights having only central wavelengths longer than the middle wavelength, a number of semiconductor lasers that produce pump lights in the shorter wavelength side is greater than a number of semiconductor lasers that produce pump lights in the longer wavelength side.