In-Band Pumped Thulium-Doped Tellurite Glass Microsphere Laser

Elena A Anashkina,Vitaly V Dorofeev,Alexey V Andrianov

doi:10.3390/app11125440

Elena A Anashkina, Vitaly V Dorofeev + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11125440

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Abstract

Microresonator-based lasers in the two-micron range are interesting for extensive applications. Tm3+ ions provide high gain; therefore, they are promising for laser generation in the two-micron range in various matrices. We developed a simple theoretical model to describe Tm-doped glass microlasers generating in the 1.9–2 μm range with in-band pump at 1.55 μm. Using this model, we calculated threshold pump powers, laser generation wavelengths and slope efficiencies for different parameters of Tm-doped tellurite glass microspheres such as diameters, Q-factors, and thulium ion concentration. In addition, we produced a 320-μm tellurite glass microsphere doped with thulium ions with a concentration of 5·1019 cm−3. We attained lasing at 1.9 μm experimentally in the produced sample with a Q-factor of 106 pumped by a C-band narrow line laser.

Highlights

An experimental microsphere was made of TeO2 -ZnO-La2 O3 -Na2 O glass doped with thulium ions with concentration NTm = 5·1019 cm−3
An experimental microsphere was made of TeO2-ZnO-La2O3-Na2O glass doped with thulium ions with concentration NTm = 5·1019 cm−3
We have developed a simple theoretical model to describe thulium-doped glass microlasers generating in the 1.9–2 μm range with in-band CW pump at 1.55 μm

Summary

Introduction

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators with high Q-factors and a small mode volume providing efficient light-matter interaction are very attractive photonic elements for obtaining optical frequency combs for different applications [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9], creating optical filters, switches, microlasers, sensors, and other miniature optoelectronic devices [10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. Sci. 2021, 11, 5440 theoretically the possibility of single-color and multi-color cascade lasing at wavelengths of about 1.9, 1.5, and 2.3 μm in Tm-doped tellurite microspheres pumped at 792 nm2 [29]. The simple theoretical model presented here lasers based on various glass matrices, including tellurite (which is analyzed in detail can be used to describe Tm-doped microlasers based on various glass matrices, including in this work), silica, fluorotellurite, fluoride, and others. The most common way to Microlasers based on different active rare-earth ions can be described by a system of analyze such microlasers is numerical solution of a dynamical system Microsphere, we use the same approach which becomes very simple for in-band pump

Theoretical Model

Te f f

Theoretical Results and Discussion

Experimental Results and Discussion

Conclusions