Structural and functional characterisation of slab waveguides written in Er3+ - doped tellurite glass, CaF2, Bi4(GeO4)3 and Bi12GeO20 crystals via implantation of MeV N+ ions

Abstract

Ion implantation proved to be a universal technique for producing waveguides in most optical materials. Tellurite glasses are used as hosts of rare-earth elements for the development of fibre and integrated optic amplifiers and lasers covering all the main telecommunication bands. Er3+- doped tellurite glasses are very attractive materials for the fabrication of broadband amplifiers in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) around 1.55 μm, as they exhibit large stimulated cross sections and broad emission bandwidth. First objective of the present research was to optimise parameters of waveguide fabrication in the Er: tellurite glass via implantation of MeV energy N+ ions in a wide range of implanted doses. Besides of glasses, slab optical waveguides were designed and fabricated in CaF2, Bi4Ge3O12 and Bi12GeO20 crystals, also using MeV energy N+ ions. Waveguides were characterised using UV/VIS and NIR absorption spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry and m-line spectroscopy. Part of the implanted samples was annealed to improve waveguide properties. We report on first working slab waveguides fabricated in CaF2 crystals using implantation of MeV-energy medium-mass ions.