Yb/Er-codoped and Yb-doped waveguide lasers in phosphate glass

Abstract

We present experimental and theoretical results of our recent work on the development of waveguide lasers using rare-earth-doped phosphate glasses. An improvement has been achieved over previously reported waveguide laser results using the process of ion exchange in a commercially available Yb/Er-codoped phosphate glass composition. We have demonstrated slope efficiencies near 30% with output powers approaching 200 mW for 1540 nm Fabry–Perot waveguide lasers. These lasers are continuously tunable over approximately 70 nm. In addition, Yb-doped Fabry–Perot waveguide lasers have been fabricated and tested. These lasers operate near 1020 nm wavelength with slope efficiency of 67%. We have also realized arrays of single-frequency distributed-Bragg-reflector (DBR) waveguide lasers operating near 1.5 μm by etching a grating in ion-exchanged waveguides. Each laser in the array operates at a different wavelength. The slope efficiencies as a function of launched pump power are 26% and the thresholds occur at approximately 50 mW of launched pump power. Temperature tuning of the wavelengths is also demonstrated.