Tm3+-doped barium gallo-germanate glass single-mode fiber with high gain per unit length for ultracompact 1.95 µm laser

Abstract

Heavily Tm3+-doped barium gallo-germanate glass single-mode (SM) fibers were successfully drawn. A gain per unit length of 3.6 dB/cm at 1.95 µm was obtained. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest gain per unit length reported for Tm3+-doped germanate glass SM fibers. A single-frequency fiber laser operating at 1.95 µm has been built using a 1.5-cm-long active fiber pumped by a 1568 nm fiber laser. The direct output power from the ultracompact laser cavity is 227 mW. The results show that the fibers are highly promising for high-power and ultracompact single-frequency laser applications.