Performance of europium aluminium doped polymer optical waveguide amplifier

Abstract

In this paper, the graded index (GI) multimode rare-earth metal (RE-M) doped polymer optical waveguide amplifier has been prepared and tested optically. A 10-cm Europium Aluminum Benzyl Methacrylate ( was fabricated via a unique technique known as the “Mosquito Method” which utilizes a micro-dispenser machine. Optical gain from 75 to 150 µm circular core diameter waveguide of 13 wt.% concentration has been demonstrated and measured under forward pumping condition. The cladding monomer deployed in this research is Acrylate resin XCL01, which is a modified photocurable acrylate material. Fundamentally, -30 decibel (dBm) red light signal input and 23 dBm pump power of 532 nm green laser wavelength is implemented within the range of 580 to 640 nm optical amplification wavelength. A maximum gain of 12.96 dB at 617 nm wavelength has been obtained for a 100 µm core diameter of Eu-Al polymer optical waveguide. The effect of different coupler diameter for pumping and the comparison of insertion loss before and after amplification against the performance of the Eu-Al polymer waveguide amplifier are also studied. There exists an optimum core diameter of which the amplifier gain enhancement is at maximum value.

Optical Amplification at 637 and 1067 nm Based on Organic Molecule AQ(PhDPA)2 and NdIII Complex Codoped Polymer Waveguides

“…In recent years, the majority of the previous researches conducted on polymer waveguide amplifiers reported the values of relative gain less than 5.0 and 4.0 dB cm −1 at 0.6 µm and 1.06 µm respectively, as indicated in Figure 11. [1,20,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] Moreover, these polymer waveguide amplifiers all focus on the optical amplification at a single wavelength. Based on AQ(PhDPA) 2 -FDPO (1:4) in this work, the relative gain value of 6.1 dB cm −1 at 637 nm obtained in waveguides with crosssection of 4 × 8 µm 2 is at an advanced level compared with the gains achieved in larger size of waveguides reported so far; in addition, the gain of AQ(PhDPA) 2 -DBFDPO (1:4) of 4.8 dB cm −1 is also a pretty good gain performance at 0.6 µm.…”