Rare-earth doped glass waveguides for visible, near-IR and mid-IR lasers and amplifiers

Abstract

The paper explains the significance of rare-earth (RE) ion-glass host interaction for engineering waveguide devices, which can potentially bring together short fibre or planar waveguides with a single pump source and filters together for designing a fully integrated photonic structure. In this paper we review and exemplify new results in the light of the ion-host interactions in Sm3+-, Er3+-, Tm3+- and Ho3+-doped tellurium and fluorosilicate oxide hosts for photoluminescence analysis at visible, near-IR, and mid-IR wavelengths. The emphasis in this paper is to exploit currently available fibre-pigtailed 980 nm and multimode high-wattage 800 nm pumps for both up and down conversion schemes. Potential applications of these integrated devices are also explained.