1300-nm gain obtained with dysprosium-doped chloride crystals Page: 4 of 10
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1300-nm gain obtained with dysprosium-doped chloride crystals
Ralph H. Page
Kathleen I. Schaffers
Raymond J. Beach
Stephen A. Payne
William F. Krupke
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Mailcode L-441
P.O. Box 808
Livermore CA 94550
(510) 422 2774
(510) 423 6195 facsimile
RPAGE@LLNL.GOV
Erbium-doped silica fiber optical amplifiers have been revolutionizing 1550-nm
fiber-optic communications.1 They are prized for their wide bandwidth, high gain,
transparency to modulation format, reliability, compactness, and low power consumption.
A great demand exists for a similar amplifier for the 1310 nm band, the operating
wavelength for the bulk of installed fiber-optic cables. In spite of much development
effort, an amplifier with performance comparable to Er:Si02 does not yet exist.
Praseodymium-doped heavy-metal fluoride fibers are currently the most attractive 1310-nm
optical amplifiers,2 but they are suitable mainly for laboratory use. Because of
multiphonon relaxation, the Pr3+ ions exhibit a radiative quantum efficiency of only -3% in
heavy-metal fluoride glasses like ZBLAN,3 so to compensate, large amplifier pump
powers -I Watt are used.2 This high drive level cannot be reliably obtained from single-
mode diode lasers of the sort used to pump the Er3+:silica amplifiers.
The specific gain (dB/mW) improves dramatically when the quantum efficiency is
increased by placing the amplfying ions in low-phonon-frequency hosts to reduce
quenching by multiphonon emission. After fluorides, chlorides (and sulfides) are thus the
next logical steps for host materials. Recently we demonstrated order-of-magnitude
emission lifetime (quantum yield) improvements in several Pr3+-doped chloride crystals.4
Unfortunately, Pr3+ ions are difficult to pump directly because of a small pump transition
cross section. Our work on Yb3+ co-doping was unsuccessful in circumventing this
difficulty.
Dy3+-doped sulfide glasses have also recently been proposed as 1300-nm
amplifiers,5 and Dy3+ possesses several strong candidate pump transitions. This ion has
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Page, R. H.; Schaffers, K. I.; Beach, R. J.; Payne, S. A. & Krupke, W. F. 1300-nm gain obtained with dysprosium-doped chloride crystals, article, March 1, 1996; California. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc665716/m1/4/: accessed April 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.