Kinetics of Er3+-doped fluorozirconate optical fiber upconversion fluorescence and laser emission under 800 nm excitation

Abstract

Applying single- and double-pulse excitation at 800 nm, the kinetics of the upconversion fluorescence in the green, as well as the upconversion laser at 543 nm was studied. No significant delay between the pumping pulse and the laser emission was found. In the erbium doped (1000 ppm) optical fiber, the mechanism responsible for the upconversion is purely of the excited state absorption (ESA) type. The double-pulse technique enables also a determination of the lifetime of the intermediate metastable state 4I11/2 (7±0.3 ms). Some other basic properties of the upconverted fluorescence and of the laser itself (fluorescence spectrum, optical gain, laser threshold) are also described.