Spectroscopic properties of Er3+-doped tellurite glass for 1.55 mu m optical amplifier

Er3+-doped TeO2-BaO (Li2O, Na2O)-La2O3 tellurite glass system was prepared and their density, characteristic temperatures and optical properties were determined and investigated. For the TeO2-BaO-La2O3-Er2O3 system, composition with 10 mol% BaO presented the highest thermal stability and good infrared transmittance. Intense and broad 1.53 mu m infrared fluorescence were observed under 977 nm diode laser excitation and the most full width at half-maximum (FWHM) is similar to 60nm. According to absorption spectrum, we calculated the optical parameters by means of Judd-Ofelt and McCumber theory such as the fluorescence lifetimes which are about 2.72-3.25 ms and the maximum emission cross-sections which are similar to 1.0pm(2) at 1.531 mu m. The sigma(e) x FWHM value of composition with 10 mol% BaO for gain bandwidth is similar to 600 exceeding those in silicon and phosphate glasses. Our results indicated this kind of tellurite glasses could be used as an ideal host glass for optical amplifier. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bismuth-activated luminescent materials for broadband optical amplifier in WDM system

New broadband near infrared luminescence covering the whole work windows (1260-1625 nm) of the current wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system was found from bismuth-activated M2O-Al2O3-SiO2 (M = Li, Na) and Li2O-Ta2O5-SiO2 glasses at room temperature in the case of 808 nm-laser excitation. But the near infrared luminescence mechanism of the bismuth-activated glasses is not well understood up to now. The figure-of-merits of bandwidth and gain of the glasses are better than those of Er3+-doped silicate glasses and Ti3+ doped sapphire, implying they are the promising gain-medium candidates for the broadband amplifiers and the widely tunable laser sources. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.