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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC)

Thermally induced optical bistability in Yb 3+ -Er 3+ co-doped phosphate glass microspheres at room temperature

Jonathan M. Ward, Danny G. O’Shea, B. J. Shorttt, Síle Nic Chormaic

Published Jun 1, 2007• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

This paper reports the first observation of chromatic and intensity optical bistability (OB) in a commercial, active, phosphate glass (Schott IOG-2) microsphere driven by thermal avalanche at room temperature. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of simultaneous intensity OB (at multiple wavelengths) and chromatic OB in a single material.

DOI
10.1109/cleoe-iqec.2007.4386239

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This paper reports the first observation of chromatic and intensity optical bistability (OB) in a commercial, active, phosphate glass (Schott IOG-2) microsphere driven by thermal avalanche at room temperature. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of simultaneous intensity OB (at multiple wavelengths) and chromatic OB in a single material.
Microsphere cavities offer appealing advantages for applications as miniature light sources due to their small size, high quality factor and low mode volume. Active spheres can be fabricated from glass doped with rare-earth ions such as Er3+ and Yb3+. The close proximity of energy levels in these triply-ionized ions is of particular advantage for obtaining fluorescence emissions through various upconversion mechanisms [1]. Here we report the first observation of chromatic and intensity optical bistability (OB) in a commercial, active, phosphate glass (Schott IOG-2) microsphere driven by thermal avalanche at room temperature. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of simultaneous intensity OB (at multiple wavelengths) and chromatic OB in a single material.
We experimentally demonstrate optical bistability in Er3+-Yb3+ phosphate glass microspheres at 295 K. Bistability is associated with both Er3+ fluorescence and lasing behavior, and chromatic switching. The chromatic switching results from an intrinsic mechanism exploiting the thermal coupling of closely spaced energy levels, and occurs simultaneously with the intensity switching. A contrast ratio of 2.8 has been obtained for chromatic switching. The intensity switching shows ratios of 21 for 520 nm and 11 for 660 nm fluorescence emissions, and 11 for IR lasing at 1.5 μm. Concurrent with these observations, we investigate a temperature-dependent absorption of pump power, which exhibits bistable behavior. The influences of the host matrix on lasing and fluorescence mechanisms are highlighted.