Recent advances in rare-earth-doped photonic glasses for near- and mid-infrared lasers

Abstract

Rare-earth (RE) doped photonic glasses exhibit potential applications in the area of optical communication, laser lidar, remote sensing, infrared detection, and biomedical. Up to now, the widely used silica based photonic glasses encounted intrinsic limitations such as lower rare-earth doping concentration, narrower emission band, larger phonon energy, and lower gain coefficients. Therefore, it is necessary to study and develop novel photonic glasses and fibers to meet the needs of new wavelength bands, especially the near-and mid-infrared materials and devices. In this paper, the important applications of RE doped photonic glasses in optical fiber amplifiers and fiber lasers are briefly described. The basic requirements for realizing near-and mid-infrared luminescence and laser are summarized. The latest research progress in RE doped photonic glasses, fibers, and devices are reviewed with special emphasis on 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0 μm wavelength bands. In addition, challenges, applications, and future advances of the near-and mid-infrared luminescence and laser in RE doped photonic glasses have also been dealt with.