Highly Er/Yb-Co-Doped Photosensitive Core Fiber for the Development of Single-Frequency Telecom Lasers

Abstract

A highly erbium- and ytterbium-co-doped photosensitive fiber with a germanophosphosilicate glass core was fabricated by the MCVD method, utilizing an all-gas-phase deposition technique developed “in-house”. Due to doping with germanium oxide (GeO2), this fiber revealed high-grade photosensitivity (without hydrogen loading) to UV laser radiation at a 193 nm wavelength. The short (28 mm) Fabry–Perot laser cavity was designed by inscribing two fiber Bragg gratings (highly and partially reflective FBGs) directly in the core of the fabricated fiber sample. The stable single-frequency operation regime of the designed laser was observed. The laser emission peak was centered at 1540 nm, with a linewidth of 50 kHz. The slope efficiency of the laser was 10%, and the maximal output power reached a level of 35 mW.

Keywords

• erbium/ytterbium-doped fiber
• germanophosphosilicate fiber
• fiber Bragg grating
• ultrashort-cavity fiber laser
• single-frequency fiber laser