Near-infrared emission character of Tm3+-doped heavy metal tellurite glasses for optical amplifiers and 1.8 mum infrared laser

• Published in: Journal of physics. D, Applied physics Applied physics, 2007-06, Vol.40 (12), p.3567-3572
• Main Authors: Lin, Hai, Wang, Xueying, Lin, Lin, Li, Changmin, Yang, Dianlai, Tanabe, Setsuhisa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0022-3727; 1361-6463
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/40/12/004

Intense 1.8 mum and efficient 1.47 mum infrared emissions have been recorded in Tm3+-doped alkali-barium-bismuth-tellurite (LKBBT) glasses with lower phonon energies under the excitation of a 792 nm diode laser. The maximum emission cross-sections for the 1.8 and 1.47 mum emission bands are derived to be 6.643 X 10-21 and 3.551 X 10-21 cm2 and the peak values are obviously higher than those in Tm3+-doped ZBLAN fluoride and TBSN tellurite glasses, respectively. In low concentration doping, the full-widths at half-maximum (FWHMs) of the two emission bands are 206 nm and 109 nm, respectively, and peak intensity ratio between them is about 2. When the doping concentration increases to 1 wt%, the peak intensity ratio exceeds 7 and the quantum efficiency of 3H4 level is only 64.6% due to the cross-relaxation process [3H4, 3H6] - > [3F4, 3F4], which benefits to achieve powerful 1.8 mum emission. The efficient and broad 1.8 and 1.47 mum infrared emission bands indicate that Tm3+-doped LKBBT glasses are suitable materials in developing S- and U-band amplifiers and 1.8 mum infrared laser.