Erbium-doped fibre amplifier
Amplificador de fibra dopada con erbio
- Date
- 1987 · confidence high
- Place
- Southampton, England, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- University of Southampton (Mears, Reekie, Poole, Payne); Bell Labs (Desurvire)
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A length of fibre with erbium ions pumped by a laser that amplifies 1550 nm light directly, without converting it to an electrical signal. It removed electronic repeaters from long-distance optical cables.
Mears, Reekie and Payne at Southampton and Desurvire, Simpson and Becker at Bell Labs demonstrated it independently in 1987; Payne is associated with the invention.
What it led to
- high-capacity wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)
- transoceanic optical submarine cables
- high-speed internet