Tellurite glass lasers operating close to 2μm

Abstract

Recent work in the area of Tm 3+ and Ho 3+ -doped tellurite fibre and bulk glass lasers operating close to 2 μm is reviewed. Spectroscopic properties of these doped glasses are discussed as well as the relevant pump schemes and energy transfer processes involved. Results of continuous wave (CW) and Q-switched Tm 3+ and Ho 3+ -doped tellurite fibre lasers are then presented and discussed. Finally, the results of tellurite bulk glass laser experiments conducted to date are reported.dX: 6.65 ms X: −12.4 ms Ch1: 500 mV 2.5 msThe oscillation of the Q-switched pulse train for a 79 cm long Tm 3+ /Ho 3+ /Yb 3+ -codoped tellurite fibre

Photonic glasses for IR and mid-IR spectral range

“…Because of the low solubility of rare-earth oxides in silica, concentration can be increased only to ~ 10 19 ions/cm 3 , before concentration quenching effects take place, resulting in a degradation of the laser efficiency [13]. Therefore, silica is not the best choice in order to realize compact active devices.…”

“…Tellurite glasses also show advantages as host materials for RE ions: high doping level can be achieved without clustering (up to ~10 21 ions/cm 3 ) [3,18], and RE ions show broad emission bands in this glass host. In addition tellurite glasses also exhibit the lowest phonon energy among conventional oxide glasses.…”

“…, Tm 3+ ions emission in mid-IR range have been investigated [3,18,25,26]. One issue in these glasses, like most oxide glasses fabricated from solidstate precursor materials, is the presence of hydroxyl ions (OH -), which have absorption in the wavelength region of interest.…”

Lead-germanate glasses and fibers: a practical alternative to tellurite for nonlinear fiber applications

“…Step-index tellurite fiber has been used to demonstrate lasing at 2 µm [10,11] and fiber amplifiers [12,13], while the major interest in microstructured tellurite fibers to date has been for supercontinuum generation [14][15][16]. Recently, pumping at~2 µm and extending the supercontinuum into the mid-infrared has been of growing interest [17].…”

Tellurite glass as a solid-state mid-infrared laser host material

“…The optimum fiber length for this set up was 76 cm. This fiber laser was also Q-switched using a rotating optical chopper placed in the laser cavity and 100 ns, 0.65 µJ laser pulses at 2.1 µm [4]. …”