This letter illustrates the design of a novel medium infrared (Mid-IR) laser based on a photonic crystal fiber made of dysprosium-doped chalcogenide glass, Dy 3+ :Ga 5 Ge 20 Sb 10 S 65 . In order to perform a realistic investigation, the simulation is performed by taking into account the spectroscopic parameters measured on the rare earth-doped glass sample. The simulated results show that an optical beam emission close to 4400-nm wavelength can be obtained by employing two pump beams at 2850 nm (pump #1) and 4092 nm (pump #2) wavelengths. The pump beams can be provided by commercial quantum cascade lasers. As example, for the pump powers of 50 mW (pump #1) and 1 W (pump #2), the input mirror reflectivity of 99%, the output mirror reflectivity of 30%, and the optical cavity length of 50 cm, a signal power close to 350 mW at the wavelength of 4384 nm can be generated. This result indicates that the designed source configuration is feasible for high beam quality Mid-IR light generation and it is efficient enough to find applications in optical free propagation links, optical remote sensing, and medicine.
The paper deals with the design of a medium infrared (Mid-IR) light source based on a microstructured fiber made of dysprosium doped chalcogenide glass, Dy3+:Ga5Ge20Sb10S65. It is constituted by the cascade of a laser cavity and an optical amplifier which could be fabricated in the same microstructured fiber. In order to obtain realistic results, the simulation is performed by taking into account the spectroscopic parameters directly measured on preliminary samples of Dy3+:Ga5Ge20Sb10S65 glasses. The main objective is to investigate the feasibility of optical beam emission close to 4.4 μm wavelength. An output power of 547.3 mW with an input pump power of 3 W is calculated for an optical fiber about 1.5 m long and with a dopant concentration close to 6 × 1025 ions/m3. This result indicates that the designed source configuration is feasible for medium infrared light generation and it could find application in optical free propagation link, optical remote sensing and biomedicine.
High optical quality rare-earth-doped LiYF4 (YLF) epitaxial layers were grown on pure YLF substrates by liquid phase epitaxy (LPE). Thulium, praseodymium and ytterbium YLF crystalline waveguides co-doped with gadolinium and/or lutetium were obtained. Spectroscopic and optical characterization of these rare-earth doped waveguides are reported. Internal propagation losses as low as 0.11 dB/cm were measured on the Tm:YLF waveguide and the overall spectroscopic characteristics of the epitaxial layers were found to be comparable to bulk crystals. Laser operation was achieved at 1.87 μm in the Tm3+ doped YLF planar waveguide with a very good efficiency of 76% with respect to the pump power. Lasing was also demonstrated in a Pr3+ doped YLF waveguide in the red and orange regions and in a Yb3+:YLF planar waveguide at 1020 nm and 994 nm.
A Thulium laser operating on the 3 H 4 → 3 H 5 transition in high-phonon-energy KLu(WO 4 ) 2 generates 1.12 W at 2.22&2.29 μm with a record-high slope efficiency of 69.2% representing a two-for-one pump process through efficient energy-transfer upconversion.
Abstract Despite the renewed interest in rare earth-doped chalcogenide glasses lying mainly in mid-infrared applications, a few comprehensive studies so far have presented the photoluminescence of amorphous chalcogenide films from visible to mid-infrared. This work reports the fabrication of luminescent quaternary sulfide thin films using radio-frequency sputtering and pulsed laser deposition, and the characterization of their chemical composition, morphology, structure, refractive index and Er 3+ photoluminescence. The study of Er 3+ 4 I 13/2 level lifetimes enables developing suitable deposition parameters; the dependency of composition, structural and spectroscopic properties on deposition parameters provides a way to tailor the RE-doped thin film properties. The surface roughness is very low for both deposition methods, ensuring reasonable propagation optical losses. The effects of annealing on the sulfide films spectroscopy and lifetimes were assessed. PLD appears consistent composition-wise, and largely independent of the deposition conditions, but radiofrequency magnetron sputtering seems to be more versatile, as one may tailor the film properties through deposition parameters manipulation. The luminescence via rare earth-doped chalcogenide waveguiding micro-structures might find easy-to-use applications concerning telecommunications or on-chip optical sensors for which luminescent sources or amplifiers operating at different wavelengths are required.
We report on polarized excited-state absorption (ESA) spectroscopy of thulium-doped fluoride crystals (KY 3 F 10 , LiYF 4 , LiLuF 4 and BaY 2 Y 8 ). The 3 F 4 → 3 F 2,3 and 3 F 4 → 3 H 4 ESA channels suitable for upconversion pumping of ~2.3 μm thulium lasers were studied.
Chalcogenide glasses appear as good candidates to build all optical gas sensors due to their wide infrared transparency and the possibility of incorporate rare earth active in MWIR spectral range. To detect and quantify gases, one way is to develop chalcogenide glasses presenting transparency compatible with the molecules absorption band frequency. Two domains of interest can be distinguished: MWIR and LWIR corresponding respectively to the 3–5 μm and 8–12 μm spectral ranges. Selenide and sulfide based chalcogenide glasses are known for their excellent infrared transmission properties in the 1-15 µm region with good thermo-mechanical properties. Doped with Dy3+or Pr3+, sulfide glass fibers have been used as MWIR source for gas sensor for CO2 detection. To probe the far infrared beyond 12 µm, telluride chalcogenide glasses appear as a very interesting material due to it low phonon energy and a broad transparency (up to 25 µm). While these attractive optical properties of telluride glasses, particularly for LWIR, there is few study about rare earth incorporation for luminescence explained a challenging synthesis process avoiding crystallization. To get more stability in the glass state it is essential to add selenium. Thus for each system, it is required to determine the best compromise between the transparency domain and the glass state stability by playing on the ratio between selenium and tellurium atoms. Regarding the energy level of Tb3+, we can expect to have a radiative emission from 3.1 µm up to 8 µm. For gas sensor application, it is a range of interest regarding the LWIR absorption band of some hazardous gases. Thus, Tb3+ doped chalcogenide glasses with nominal composition of Ga5Ge20Sb10Se(65-x)Tex (x = 0, 10, 20, 25, 30, 32.5, 35, 37.5) were synthetized. Their physico-chemical properties (chemical composition, density, thermal characteristics) and optical properties (transmission and ellipsometry spectroscopies) are clearly modified by tellurium substitution to selenium. Based on a detailed study of the Ga5Ge20Sb10Se(65-x)Tex bulk glass and fiber properties, the optimal composition of seleno-telluride glass fiber was found to be Ga5Ge20Sb10Se45Te20. The luminescence properties of Tb3+ (500, 1000 and 1500 ppm) doped Ga5Ge20Sb10Se65 and Ga5Ge20Sb10Se45Te20 were studied in glass bulk and fiber samples. Radiative transitions calculated from Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory were compared to the experimental values. Although an expected lower phonon energy for telluride glasses, selenide glasses stay more suitable for MWIR emission with a strong emission at 4.8 and 3.1 µm. The emission at 8 µm was successfully observed with careful luminescence investigations.
