Optical properties of organic neodymium complex doped optical waveguides based on the intramolecular energy transfer effect

Abstract

We report a method of using neodymium complexes as active waveguide core materials to achieve optical gain at the 1060 nm wavelength when using an LED instead of an 808 nm semiconductor laser as the pump source. Through the intramolecular energy transfer mechanism between ligands and Nd3+ ions, the photoluminescence spectrum could be obtained on a 100µm thick film of neodymium complex doped PMMA polymer under excitation of a 380 nm-450 nm LED. We also present calculations showing that the pump power required to generate optical gain (turn-on power) for a LED and 808 nm laser is 3.3 mW and 40 mW, respectively. An optical gain of about 6 dB can be obtained on a 20-mm-long waveguide when pumped by a 25 mW LED compared with that of about 1.4 dB excited by a 60 mW 808 nm semiconductor laser.