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Fluoride Glass Fiber Lasers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

A. C. Tropper*
Affiliation:
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton S09 5NH, UK
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Abstract

The versatility of lanthanide-doped fluorozirconate glass fiber as a laser material is evident since over the past four years more than 30 laser transitions have been demonstrated in this medium, at wavelengths ranging from 480nm to 3.45μm. In this low phonon-energy glass metastable lanthanide energy levels are found wherever the gap to the next level exceeds ∼2000cm-1. The glass not only has extended transparency in the infrared but also appears resistant to photochromic damage by blue radiation, making it an attractive blue laser gain medium. In particular it has been shown that some blue and green laser transitions in these fibers can be operated efficiently with infrared pumping, offering the possibility of diodepumped operation. Various schemes are potentially of interest; for example 3mW of 493nm laser power has been generated from a praseodymium-doped fluoride fiber pumped at two wavelengths by the emission and unabsorbed 840nm pump radiation from an ytterbium-doped silica fiber laser.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

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