Investigation of radiation-induced active band attenuation in erbium-doped fiber and the radiation-resistant low noise broadband source design

Abstract

We comprehensively investigate the radiation-induced active band attenuation (RIABA) characteristic of erbium (Er)-doped fiber. It is experimentally shown that the RIABA gradually alleviated with radiation dose increasing and the absorption/luminescence characteristics of Er3 + appear to be unaffected by irradiation ray. By employing the intrinsic luminescence spectrum of Er3 + as the original output spectrum, a radiation-resistant low noise broadband source with specially customized Er-doped photonic crystal fiber and multiple radiation-resistant methods is proposed. Under 50 krad irradiation dose, it demonstrates mean-wavelength stability of 26.4 ppm and the output power attenuation of <0.1 dB. Throughout the irradiation, the 3 dB bandwidth of the output spectrum is >40 nm. The broadband source proposed exhibits excellently comprehensive performances in the radiation environment and is quite feasible for strategic high-accuracy interferometric fiber-optic gyroscopes.