C-band laser emission from Er3+-doped fluorosilicate glass microspheres and its application in temperature sensing

Abstract

Compared to silica glass, fluorosilicate multi-component glass has a unique phase-separated structure, which improves the stability of the glass while improving the fluorescence efficiency. In this paper, microspheres were fabricated from Er3+-doped fluorosilicate glass by adopting the traditional melt quenching and fiber heating technique. Under a 975 nm laser pumping, single and multi-mode microsphere lasers were obtained in C-band, and the lowest threshold power of about 2.0 mW is experimentally obtained at multi-mode microsphere lasers. In addition, the microsphere lasers can sense temperature with a sensitivity of 11.28 p.m./oC.