Structured active fiber fabrication and characterization of a chemically high‐purified Dy3+‐doped chalcogenide glass

Abstract

AbstractBy conventional melt‐quenching techniques, a series of Dy3+‐doped (0.1 to 1.0 wt%) Ga5Ge20Sb15S60 bulk glasses were fabricated and their potential for developing mid‐infrared fiber laser beyond 4 μm were evaluated, in which the optimal Dy3+ doping concentration was found to be 0.3 wt% and the largest laser quality factor value (σe × τmea = 2.62 × 10−23 cm2 s) among all of the Dy3+‐doped chalcogenide glass was obtained. On this basis, through using the chemical purification methods with chlorine gas combined with the dynamic distillation process, the high‐purity GGSS glasses with low O–H and S–H absorptions were successfully fabricated, which was confirmed by the optimized mid‐infrared linear transmittance and improved fluorescent lifetimes of Dy3+: 6H13/2, 6H11/2 levels. Furthermore, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, the Dy3+‐doped, single‐mode, and double‐cladding chalcogenide fibers with the core/cladding ratios of 125:60:11 and 125:66:11.5 were achieved by a multistage rod‐in‐tube fiber drawing process and extrusion methods, respectively. The GeS2‐based fiber exhibits excellent transmission performance at 1.0‐5.0 μm: 3.0 dB/m at 2.9 μm (O–H), 2.4 dB/m at 4.1 μm (S–H). Combining the advantages of high‐purity, high doping concentration and single‐mode double‐cladding structure, the optimized active fiber should be an ideal efficient and low‐threshold medium toward mid‐infrared fiber laser beyond 4 μm.