Rare earth doped chalcogenide glass: past success and future prospects

Hewak, Daniel W. (2009) Rare earth doped chalcogenide glass: past success and future prospects. Society of Glass Technology Annual Conference, , Lancaster, United Kingdom. 16 - 18 Sep 2009.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

In the quest for an efficient optical fibre amplifier, rare earth doped chalcogenide glasses experienced a rebirth of interest in the early 1990s, when these materials were revealed as a candidate for an efficient optical fibre amplifier operating around 1300 nm. This research spawned a wide range of related activities including light sources further into the infrared, targeting the 2 - 5 micron mid-infrared region, chalcogenide optical integrated circuits and other device geometries. In this talk we describe our work with gallium lanthanum sulphide based glasses encompassing over fifteen years of research. Our initial success with praseodymium and dysprosium doped glass and fibre, new transitions in the mid-infrared, the first laser demonstrations in a chalcogenide glass host and most recently glass microsphere based devices will be described. Driven by applications in telecommunications, aerospace, medicine and sensing, research continues with renewed interest in the mid-infrared, where efficient, compact solid state laser sources are lacking. We conclude this talk with an overview of our current activities and future directions.

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