Development of high power photoactive Erbium and Erbium-Ytterbium doped fibers for ultra-fast satellite telecommunications

这个为期三年的项目的主要目标是延长用于通信卫星100Gbps吞吐量的掺铒光纤放大器(EDFA/YDFA)的工作寿命和性能。建议的研究分为两种互补的方法：一种是基于光漂白的光再生过程，以恢复暴露在伽马辐射下的EDFA/YDFA的光增益；另一种是利用热电(TE)涂层散热并将其部分转化为电能来回收其运行过程中使用的部分能量。我们的活动将与蒙雷亚尔地区的两家公司合作开展：MPB Technologies设计和制造用于空间应用的紧凑型设备和仪器，Pi-Sol Technologies开发用于能源转换的热电Bi2Te3和Sb2Te3纳米材料。将有两个学术伙伴参与：费德里科·罗塞伊教授(INRS)，他将进行先进的表征和开发高效的TE涂层以及光漂白过程的参数研究，以更好地了解激光/物质和辐射/物质相互作用；以及Cornelia Chilian博士(Slowpoke实验室，蒙特雷亚尔理工学院)，负责辐照实验。我们的研究活动包括使用各种密封的伽马源和一个20千瓦的中子堆，以100krad/年的低剂量率再现空间条件。我们的最终目标是制定有效的解决方案和/或缓解战略，以模拟恶劣的环境，这些环境符合我们的工业伙伴的可行性参数，可以直接在卫星和航天器上实施。

The main objective of this three-year project is to extend the operation lifetime and performance of Erbium/Ytterbium-Doped Fibre Amplifiers (EDFA/YDFAs) used for 100 Gbps throughput in telecommunication satellites. The proposed research is divided into two complementary approaches: one aiming to implement an optical regeneration process based on photo-bleaching to recover optical gain in EDFA/YDFAs exposed to gamma radiations, while the second is to retrieve some of the energy used during their operation using thermo-electric (TE) coating layers for dissipating excessive heating and partially convert it into electricity. Our activities will be conducted in partnership with two companies from the Montréal area: MPB Technologies, which designs and manufactures compact equipment and instruments for space applications, and Pi-SOL Technologies, which develops thermoelectric Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 nanomaterials for energy conversion. Two academic partners will be involved: Prof. Federico Rosei (INRS) who will perform advanced characterization and develop efficient TE coating layers as well as the parametric investigation of the photo-bleaching process to better understand laser/matter and radiation/matter interactions, and Dr. Cornelia Chilian (SLOWPOKE laboratory, Polytechnique Montréal), who is in charge of irradiation experiments will be performed. Our research activities include the use of various sealed gamma sources and a 20 kW neutron reactor at low doses rate of 100 krad/year to reproduce space conditions. Our ultimate goal is to develop efficient solutions and/or mitigation strategies to simulate harsh environments, which enter within the feasibility parameters of our industrial partners for direct implementation in satellites and space crafts.