Ytterbium doped nanostructured optical fibers for high power fiber lasers

Sahu, J.K., Paul, M.C., Kalita, M.P., Boyland, A.J., Codemard, C., Yoo, S., Webb, A.S., Standish, R.J., Nilsson, J., Das, S., Bhadra, S.K., Pal, M., Dhar, A. and Sen, R. (2009) Ytterbium doped nanostructured optical fibers for high power fiber lasers. European Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO/Europe-EQEC), , Munich, Germany. 14 - 19 Jun 2009.

Abstract

With the breakthrough in ytterbium (Yb) doped fiber laser power scaling to kilowatt levels [1], the search for improved host glass properties has received much attention. A silica host, which is commonly used in high power fiber devices, has the advantage of being low-cost, reliable and able to sustain extremely high optical densities, as compared to other alternative glasses. However, silica is considered to be a poor host in terms of the level of Rare-earth(RE) that can be incorporated into it without the clustering effect of RE ions. This makes it difficult to achieve the high level of RE concentration in silica fibers, that is needed to shorten the device length of high power fiber lasers, which helps to suppress the non-linear effects (such as stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering) in fibers. In this paper, we investigate Yb doped Y₂O₃ (or Y₃Al₆O₁₂) nanoparticles in a silica rich matrix, as an alternative to the Yb in a 'standard', such as aluminium or phosphorous co-doped, silica host for use in high power fiber lasers. Y₂O₃ is a good host for RE incorporation, and efficient Yb:Y₂O₃ ceramic lasers have been reported in [2]. It is expected that Y₂O₃ nanoparticles within a silica host will improve the RE solubility in fibers.

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Contributors

Author: J.K. Sahu

Author: J. Nilsson

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