Spectral characteristics of the erbium-bismuth co-doped silica fibers and its application in single frequency fiber laser

Abstract

We developed two kinds of erbium (Er)-bismuth (Bi) co-doped silica fibers with different erbium doping concentrations. After investigation of its spectral characteristics, it was found that the co-doping of the bismuth could alleviate the clustering of the erbium ions in the silica fiber and thus improve the fluorescence efficiency. However, the near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence spectrum attributed to the bismuth ions was different from that reported before and needs further comprehensive investigation. For the heavy Er doped erbium-bismuth (Er-Bi) co-doped fiber (about 8000 ppm Er concentration), the optical absorption coefficients at the wavelengths of 976 and 1530 nm are more than 40 and 90 dB/m, respectively. A couple of fiber Bragg gratings with proper reflectivity were chosen to be spliced to 2 cm long of this fiber forming a compact linear cavity fiber laser. Upon the excitation of the 976 nm laser diode, stable single frequency fiber laser operation was realized with a maximum side mode suppression ratio more than 60 dB and a line-width less than 1 kHz. By splicing a segment of the Er fiber to the output end of the fiber laser, the fiber laser worked in a master oscillator pumping amplifier (MOPA) structure and emitted an increased laser power of more than 100 mW.