Phase-Separated Alumina–Silica Glass-Based Erbium-Doped Fibers for Optical Amplifier: Material and Optical Characterization along with Amplification Properties
Mukul Paul,
Alexander Kir’yanov,
Yuri Barmenkov,
Mrinmay Pal,
Randall Youngman,
Anirban Dhar,
Shyamal Das
Affiliations
Mukul Paul
Fiber Optics and Photonics Division, Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, 196, Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Kolkata 700032, India
Alexander Kir’yanov
Centro de Investigaciones en Optica, Loma del Bosque 115, Col. Lomas del Campestre, Leon 37150, Guanajuato, Mexico
Yuri Barmenkov
Centro de Investigaciones en Optica, Loma del Bosque 115, Col. Lomas del Campestre, Leon 37150, Guanajuato, Mexico
Mrinmay Pal
Fiber Optics and Photonics Division, Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, 196, Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Kolkata 700032, India
Randall Youngman
Science and Technology Division, Corning Incorporated, Corning, NY 14830, USA
Anirban Dhar
Fiber Optics and Photonics Division, Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, 196, Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Kolkata 700032, India
Shyamal Das
Fiber Optics and Photonics Division, Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute, 196, Raja S.C. Mullick Road, Kolkata 700032, India
In this paper, we present phase-separated alumina–silica glass-based Er3+-doped optical fibers made by a modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) process in combination with a solution doping (SD) technique. The fibers exhibited better optical performance than other silica-based host glasses—both in terms of spectral broadening and flattening of the gain spectra in the C band (1530–1560 nm) region—as well as an improved lifetime. These phase-separated erbium-doped fibers (EDF) promoted longer Er–O bond lengths and also hexa- and penta-coordinated Al3+ ions instead of the fourfold coordination found in non-phase-separated EDF. It was observed that the higher coordination numbers of Er3+ and Al3+ ions in phase-separated glass hosts led to more homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadening, resulting in better flatness of the gain spectrum with 1.2 dB more gain compared to the non-phase-separated EDF.
