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Journal of Applied Physics

Clustering in erbium-doped silica glass fibers analyzed using 980 nm excited-state absorption

Richard S. Quimby, William J. Miniscalco, Barbara A. Thompson

Published Oct 15, 1994• 166 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A nonsaturable component to the 980 nm excited state absorption (ESA) is found in Er3+-doped silica glass fibers. This anomalous behavior of the ESA provides a way of quantitatively characterizing the degree of clustering in these glasses. It is found that the degree of clustering is greater for higher Er3+ concentrations, and is significantly reduced with the addition of aluminum to the glass. With this method it is also found to be possible to distinguish between true clustering and the occurrence of closely spaced Er3+ pairs in a random distribution.

DOI
10.1063/1.357278

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Optical Amplifiers and Their Applications•Jan 1, 1992•2 citations
A nonsaturable component to the 980 nm excited state absorption (ESA) is found in Er3+-doped silica glass fibers. This anomalous behavior of the ESA provides a way of quantitatively characterizing the degree of clustering in these glasses. It is found that the degree of clustering is greater for higher Er3+ concentrations, and is significantly reduced with the addition of aluminum to the glass. With this method it is also found to be possible to distinguish between true clustering and the occurrence of closely spaced Er3+ pairs in a random distribution.
We report the study of the excited-state absorption (ESA) spectrum of Er3+ in erbium-doped silica fiber (EF) within the telecom band, 1.48–1.59μm. Two experimental techniques, the detection of up-conversion emission following the ESA process and the measurement of the EF nonlinear transmission coefficient, both supplied with a theoretical background, allow obtaining a mutually consistent spectral behavior of the ESA parameter, which is the ratio of ESA to ground-state absorption cross section, at 1.48–1.59μm excitation.
We report a study of the excited-state absorption (ESA) in erbium-doped silica fiber (EDF) pumped at 977 nm, when the fiber is simultaneously excited by signal radiation at 1531 nm. We show, both experimentally and theoretically, that ESA efficiency at 977 nm gets strongly enhanced only in the presence of signal power. Experimentally, this conclusion is supported through the detection of upconversion emission, a “fingerprint” of the ESA process, and through the measurements of the EDF nonlinear transmission coefficient for the pump wavelength, which is sensitive to the ESA value. It is shown that the experimental data are precisely modeled with an advanced five-level Er3+ model developed for the EDF.
The absorption spectra of clustered and isolated ions in erbium-doped germanosilicate fibers have been experimentally studied. The ground-state absorption spectra broaden as the degree of erbium-ion clustering increases, indicating that the absorption spectrum of clustered ions is significantly different from that of the homogeneous ions. This fact is confirmed by comparison of the broadened absorption spectra with the fiber's unbleachable loss spectrum, a direct measurement of the clustered ions. This is the first experimental evidence to the authors' knowledge that indicates different absorption cross sections for the two species of ions in germanosilicate glass, an assumption that is used in the theoretical description of self-pulsing in erbium-doped fiber lasers but is in direct contradiction to the pair-induced quenching model widely used to characterize erbium-doped fiber amplifiers.
Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) can very efficiently convert pump to signal energy. Quantum efficiencies higher than 80 % with 1.48 pm pump [1], and 93% when pumped at 980 nm [2] are reported. However, even higher values should be theoretically possible for an ideal EDFA. Various physical effects may lead to quantum efficiency (QE) reduction. Not all of them are quite well understood yet. At Erbium concentrations above 100 ppm by weight the pump loss is partly explained by energy transfer between two excited ions resulting in upcon- version process [3]. At low concentrations Excited-State Absorption (ESA) could be a more significant effect reducing QE. ESA of photons from 1.5 |im band have been predicted from absorption measurements [4] and also observed [5]. However, to our knowledge, no quantitative analysis has been made which would distinguish between the contributions of ESA and two-particle upconversion when measurements of short wavelength luminescence were performed.