Abstract
Near- and mid-infrared fibre lasers find many applications in areas such as remote and chemical sensing, lidar and medicine, and tellurite fibres offer advantages over other common fibre glasses such a lower phonon energy and higher rare-earth ion solubility than silicate glasses, and greater chemical and environmental stability than fluoride glasses. Rate equation modelling is a very useful tool for the characterisation and performance prediction of new rare earth transitions in these novel fibre materials. We present the numerical rate equation modelling results for a ∼2 μm Tm3+-doped tellurite fibre laser when pumped with a 1.6 μm Er3+/Yb3+-doped double-clad silica fibre laser. A maximum slope efficiency of 76% with respect to launched pump power was achieved in the experimental fibre laser set up with a 32 cm long fibre. The high slope efficiency is very close to the Stokes efficiency limit of ∼82% which is due to the in-band pumping scheme employed and the lack of pump excited state absorption. The two-level rate equations involving absorption and emission between the Tm3+: 3H6 and 3F4 levels have been solved iteratively using a fourth-order Runge-Kutta algorithm and the results compared with the experimental results. For the 32 cm fibre with output coupler reflectivities of 12%, 50%, 70% and 90%, the respective theoretical slope efficiencies of 73%, 64%, 53% and 29% are in very good agreement with the experimentally measured values of 76%, 60%, 48% and 33%.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Title of host publication | Solid State Lasers and Amplifiers III |
Editors | Jonathan A. Terry, Thomas Graf, Helena Jelínková |
Publisher | SPIE |
Number of pages | 10 |
Volume | 6998 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780819471963 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Apr 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Event | Solid State Lasers and Amplifiers III - Strasbourg, France Duration: 8 Apr 2008 → 10 Apr 2008 Conference number: 3 |
Publication series
Name | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
---|---|
Volume | 6998 |
ISSN (Print) | 0277-786X |
ISSN (Electronic) | 1996-756X |
Conference
Conference | Solid State Lasers and Amplifiers III |
---|---|
Country/Territory | France |
City | Strasbourg |
Period | 8/04/08 → 10/04/08 |