Rare-earth-doped glass waveguides for amplifiers and lasers

Abstract

Several different glass materials were investigated for waveguide amplifier and laser applications, and the potential to realize practical devices with these materials were examined using waveguides fabricated by ion exchange processes. Channel waveguides in an erbium doped phosphate laser glass were fabricated by a dry silver-film ion exchange technique, and the effects of high Er³⁺ concentration were investigated in terms of Er³⁺ ion interactions and energy transfer from Yb³⁺ to Er³⁺. Cooperative upconversion coefficients of the ⁴I₁₃/₂ level,7.7±0.7x 10⁻¹⁹ cm³/sec and 9.3±0.7x10⁻¹⁹ cm³/sec, were obtained experimentally for Er³⁺ concentration of 1x10²⁰ cm³ in the bulk and waveguide samples, respectively. These values are one order of magnitude smaller than the ones reported for silica glass. The increase in the cooperative upconversion coefficient with the increase in Er³⁺ concentration was found to be small. The effects of cooperative upconversion on the gain performance were analyzed for different Er³⁺ concentrations using a theoretical model which adopted experimentally obtained parameters. Given the small cooperative upconversion coefficients in this glass, Er³⁺ concentrations potentially as high as 3.7x10²⁰ cm⁻³ were shown to be feasible by the modeling. This would result in a 12 dB gain with a 4 cm long waveguide for 150 mW pump power at 1.48 μm. The transfer efficiency from Yb3+ to Er³⁺ was found to be 95% or higher for samples with Er³⁺ concentrations of 1.9x10²⁰ cm⁻³, and 24x10²⁰ cm⁻³, even when the ratio of the concentrations, Yb/Er, is only about 1.2 and 2. Planar channel waveguides of rare-earth doped fluoride glass were demonstrated with single mode excitation and propagation loss below 3 dB/cm. The waveguide core was fabricated by Ag⁺-Na⁺ molten salt ion exchange process in a borosilicate glass (BGG31), and a Nd³⁺-doped ZBLAN glass was used as a cladding. A 0.45 dB signal amplification at 1.064 μm was observed in the fabricated 1cm long waveguide, and a 0.9 dB amplification is expected at the emission peak (1.049 μm). Modeling results suggest that 2.5 dB/cm is possible by improving surface flatness of the ZBLAN glass.