Progress in fluoride fiber lasers and amplifiers

Paul William France; Michael C. Brierley

doi:10.1117/12.24927

Translator Disclaimer

1 January 1991 Progress in fluoride fiber lasers and amplifiers

Paul William France, Michael C. Brierley

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 1373, Fiber Laser Sources and Amplifiers II; (1991) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.24927
Event: SPIE Microelectronic Interconnect and Integrated Processing Symposium, 1990, San Jose, United States

Abstract

The initial predictions that fluoride glasses would find important applications as laser host materials are now becoming fulfilled. Their attraction lay in their low non-radiative decay rates, a result of their lower fundamental phonon energies (also making them transparent out to 5.0um). These low non-radiative rates promised higher efficiencies for many lasing transitions, but also the possibility of new transitions not feasible in other glass compositions. In the last three years, since the initial announcement of the first fluoride fibre laser, the field has mushroomed and to date fibrelaser operation has now been demonstrated on 20 differenttransitions ranging from 0.455 um in the blue to 2.9 um in the mid-JR. Moreover fibre optical amplifiers based on monomode fibre have also now been demonstrated and useful gains observed at 1.34, 1.54 and 2.7 um. Clearly fluoride glasses now provide an interesting alternative to silica based systems for rare-earth (lanthanide) doped fibres, and the first commercial devices are not far away.

Citation Download Citation

Paul William France and Michael C. Brierley "Progress in fluoride fiber lasers and amplifiers", Proc. SPIE 1373, Fiber Laser Sources and Amplifiers II, (1 January 1991); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.24927

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE