Gain-controlled erbium-doped fiber amplifier using mode-selective photonic lantern

For the first time, we demonstrate the implementation of a core pumped few mode erbium amplifier utilizing a mode selective photonic lantern for spatial modal control of the pump light. This device is able to individually amplify the first six fiber modes with low differential modal gain. In addition, we obtained differential modal gain lower than 1 dB and signal gain of approximately 16.17 dB at λs = 1550 nm through forward pumping the LP21 modes at λp = 976 nm