Evidence of a saturable-absorption effect in heavily erbium-doped fibers

Colin, S.; Contesse, E.; Boudec, P. Le; Stéphan, G.; Sanchez, François

doi:10.1364/ol.21.001987

Cited by 98 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Figure 3 shows that the measured pulse repetition time (T) and fullwidth at half-maximum (Δτ) decrease with increasing pump power. The results are similar to those observed in Er-doped fiber lasers and can be explained by the fact that pumping the gain to its threshold to overcome the total losses (saturable and unsaturable losses) and bleaching the saturable absorbers are achieved much faster at higher pump powers [7,8]. Thus, time interval between the end of a pulse and the start of the consecutive pulse becomes shorter for higher pumping rates.…”

supporting

confidence: 83%

Self-pulsation in fiber-coupled, on-chip microcavity lasers

Özdemir

Zhu

et al. 2010

Opt. Lett.

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We report self-pulsation in an erbium-doped silica toroidal microcavity laser coupled to a tapered fiber and investigate the effects of pump power and taper-cavity coupling condition on the dynamic behaviors of the pulse train. The microcavity is pumped at 1444.8 nm and lasing occurs at 1560.2 nm with a threshold of 12 μW. Experimental results are interpreted within the framework of ion-pair induced self-quenching model. OCIS: 230.5750, 140.3538, 140.3500, 220.4000 Recent developments in on-chip optical microcavities with high-quality factors and microscale mode volumes open a promising direction to realize low-threshold lasers which can be easily integrated with silicon-based photonic components. Yang et al. reported that Er-doped microcavities can sustain continuous-wave (CW) and self-pulsing (SP) operations at low and high ion concentrations, respectively [2]. Similar operations were observed and studied in rare-earth-ion doped optical fiber lasers and amplifiers [7,8]. Self-pulsing in heavily Er-doped laser systems under continuous pumping is attributed to ion-ion interactions in Er clusters leading to cooperative energy transfer between ions which returns one ion to ground state preventing the population of paired ions from full inversion [8]. Lasers based on high-Q whispering gallery modes (WGMs) microcavities hold advantages of lower threshold, compact size, and easy integration with on-chip devices.In addition, microcavity laser excited through a fiber taper provides an easy way to tune the cavity lifetime as well as the laser dynamics via adjusting the taper-cavity air gap. Previously, Min et al. studied CW operation in Er-implanted toroidal microcavity lasers including the effects of cavity loading and Er concentration on the lasing wavelength and threshold [9].To date, factors affecting the dynamics of SP in Er-doped microcavities have remained as open problems. In this Letter, we demonstrate and systematically investigate SP in Er-doped silica microtoroidal lasers with special attention to the effects of pump power and cavity loading condition on the time evolution of laser pulses.Microcavities used in this work are fabricated from Er-doped sol-gel silica layer on a silicon wafer through photolithography procedure followed by CO 2 reflow [5]. Results reported in this Letter are obtained from a microtoroid with major (minor) diameter of 43 μm (5 μm) and Er concentration of 2×10 19 ions/cm 3 . Experimental setup used to characterize the Er-doped microtoroid laser is shown in Fig. 1. A tunable external cavity CW laser provides the pump light

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supporting

confidence: 83%

Self-pulsation in fiber-coupled, on-chip microcavity lasers

Özdemir

Zhu

et al. 2010

Opt. Lett.

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“…When the pumping level is high enough, the laser output becomes quasi-CW, as shown in Fig. 28 [72]. This result is in agreement with that obtained in previously studies [62,69]. In the case With the fiber-end coupler, the pulse width and frequency as functions of pump power are indicated in Fig.…”

Section: Experimental Observationsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Erbium-doped fiber lasers have demonstrated a large variety of dynamical behaviors, including self-pulsing operations [65], static and dynamic polarization effects [66], antiphase and chaotic dynamics [67]. The dynamic behaviors have been attributed to the presence of ion-pairs or clusters acting as a saturable absorber [68][69], bidirectional propagation in "high-loss cavity" and Brillouin scattering effects in the fiber [70]. Ion pair concentration can play an important role in self-pulsing dynamic behaviors [71].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High Power Tunable Tm3+-fiber Lasers and Its Application in Pumping Cr2+:ZnSe Lasers

Tang¹,

Xu²

2010

Frontiers in Guided Wave Optics and Optoelectronics

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“…The contributions in heating stemming from the Stokes-and ESA-loss at the pump wavelength do not lead to considerable changes in the laser dynamics since they are not essentially dependent on the intracavity laser power. Note, meanwhile, that a possible effect from Erbium pairs [5] is negligible for our fiber since its absorption and luminescence spectra do not demonstrate any band in the visible, which should be present if such pairs exist [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%