Long-band emission of microsphere lasers based on erbium-doped sol-gel silica-alumina glasses

Abstract

This letter reports on long-band (L band) lasing whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) in microspheres based on sol-gel silica-alumina glasses doped with high concentration of erbium ions (Er+3 from 1250 to 15 000 ppm). The sol-gel method for making these Er-doped silica-alumina glasses is described. The microspheres with diameters from 40 to 200μm were built by electrical arc. The experimental results show that laser oscillations with high gain at L band were obtained with different coupling schemes, especially with forward pumping and/or backward pumping coupling. The collected laser output power of one WGM could reach to −5dBm in the L band of 1570–1610 nm.

Up-Conversion Luminescence and C-Band Laser in Er3+-Doped Fluorozirconate Glass Microsphere Resonator

“…While, the threshold is much lower than the output power obeys a linear relationship with the pump power. The threshold of the 1.5 μm laser in Er 3+ -doped ZBYA microshpere is lower than tellurite glass microsphere (2 mW) [11] and silica glass microsphere (2 mW) [34].…”

Effect of Excitation Migration and Upconversion in Highly Erbium-doped Glass Micro-sphere Lasers

“…We had obtained good results of the WGM emissions from sol-gel Er-doped glass micro-sphere lasers in our previous works [13,15]. The optimal ratio of Al 2 O 3 :Er 2 O 3 and optimal Er 3+ -concentration dispersed into sol-gel silica-alumina glasses for micro-sphere lasers were 10:1 and of 2500 ppm, respectively.…”

Ultralow-threshold laser in a Nd 3+ doped silica microsphere

“…In this paper, we present an ultralow threshold NDSM laser, which was a pure silica sphere coated with Nd 3 þ doped sol-gel film and showed a rather simple production procedure, good characteristics, low cost and flexibility [25,26]. In our experiment, we employed Nd 3 þ as the doping ions because the emission of the Nd 3 þ ' s transitions from 4 F 3/2 to 4 I 11/2 falls well around 1080 nm.…”