Open AccessCe3+/Yb3+/Er3+ triply doped bismuth borosilicate glass: a potential fiber material for broadband near-infrared fiber amplifiers
Author(s) -
Yushi Chu,
Jing Ren,
Jianzhong Zhang,
GangDing Peng,
Jun Yang,
Pengfei Wang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
scientific reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.24
H-Index - 213
ISSN - 2045-2322
DOI - 10.1038/srep33865
Subject(s) - materials science , borosilicate glass , luminescence , erbium , bismuth , doping , optical amplifier , zblan , optical fiber , fiber , optoelectronics , fiber laser , infrared , laser , optics , wavelength , physics , metallurgy , composite material
Erbium doped bismuth borosilicate (BBS) glasses, possessing the broadest 1.55 μm near infrared (NIR) emission band among oxide glasses, stand out as excellent fiber material for optical fiber amplifiers. In this work, we demonstrate that both broadened and enhanced NIR emission of Er 3+ can be obtained by sensibly combining the effects such as mixed glass former effect, phonon-assisted energy transfer (PAET) and de-excitation effect induced by codopant. Specially, by codoping CeO 2 in a controlled manner, it leads to not only much improved optical quality of the glasses, enhanced NIR emission, but also significantly suppressed energy transfer up-conversion (ETU) luminescence which is detrimental to the NIR emission. Cerium incorporated in the glasses exists overwhelmingly as the trivalent oxidation state Ce 3+ and its effects on the luminescence properties of Er 3+ are discussed. Judd-Ofelt analysis is used to evaluate gain amplification of the glasses. The result indicates that Ce 3+ /Yb 3+ /Er 3+ triply doped BBS glasses are promising candidate for erbium doped fiber amplifiers. The strategy described here can be readily extended to other rare-earth ions (REs) to improve the performance of REs doped fiber lasers and amplifiers.