Erbium nanoparticle doped fibers for efficient, resonantly-pumped Er-doped fiber lasers

Abstract

Nanoparticle (NP) doping is a new technique for making erbium-doped fibers (EDFs); the Er ions are surrounded by a cage of aluminum and oxygen ions, substantially reducing Er³⁺ ion-ion energy exchange and its deleterious effects on laser performance. Er-Al-doped NPs have been synthesized and doped in-situ into the silica soot of the preform core. We report the first known measurements of NP-doped EDFs in a resonantly-core pumped master oscillator-power amplifier (MOPA) configuration; the optical-to-optical slope efficiency was 80.4%, which we believe is a record for this type of fiber.