Modelling and Design of Lanthanide Ion-Doped Chalcogenide Fiber Lasers: Progress towards the Practical Realization of the First MIR Chalcogenide Fiber Laser

Abstract

This paper presents the progress in the fields of the modelling and design of lanthanide ion-doped chalcogenide glass fiber lasers. It presents laser cavity designs that have been developed in order to optimize the performance of lanthanide ion-doped chalcogenide glass fiber lasers. Additionally, various numerical algorithms that have been applied for the optimization of chalcogenide glass lasers are reviewed and compared. The comparison shows that a combination of less accurate but more robust algorithms with more accurate ones gives the most promising performance.

Development Progress of 3–5 μm Mid-Infrared Lasers: OPO, Solid-State and Fiber Laser

“…In the context of the chalcogenide glass fiber lasers, the ions that have received the most attention are praseodymium and terbium. The energy level diagram [76] is shown in Figure 13. The chalcogenide glass has excellent mid-infrared transmission, thermal and mechanical properties.…”

“…In the context of the chalcogenide glass fiber lasers, the ions that have received the most attention are praseodymium and terbium. The energy level diagram [76] is shown in Figure 13. For the glass fibers of fluoride, chalcogenide and tellurite, their physical chemical properties are different, as shown in Table 9.…”

Structural, thermal and optical studies of Eu3+ ion doped Ge22As20Se58 glass

“…From the Judd-Ofelt calculations, the lifetime of 8.9 and 7.8 ms was estimated for selenide and seleno-telluride matrix, respectively, during radiative transition from 7 F 5 → 7 F 6 in the range of 4.3-6.0 μm. A review by Sujecki highlighted the characteristics of MIR sources, low-cost laser sources based on ZBLAN fiber and rare-earth (Pr 3+ , Dy 3+ , Tb 3+ )-doped ChG-based MIR fiber laser cavity designs [7]. Interestingly, Shiryaev et al conducted experimental and numerical studies on the emission properties of Pr 3+ doped Ga(I)-Ge-As-Se glass fibers [8].…”

Photo-Writable Sulfide Glasses Used to Fabricate Core-Clad Fiber Doped with Pr3+ for Mid-IR Luminescence

“…Up to now, the most powerful fiber lasers realized in the MIR spectral range use ZBLAN fibers doped with RE ions [8]. The longest operating wavelength achieved is below 4.5 µm [9] due to the multiphonon relaxation in fluoride glasses that quenches the luminescence from higher energetic states. ChG have a lower phonon energy to achieve laser emission at longer wavelengths as demonstrated by calculations [10] and also possess a high refractive index, which is beneficial to obtain higher absorption and emission cross-sections in RE-doped glasses.…”