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IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics

Frequency Domain Spectroscopy in Rare-Earth-Doped Gain Media

Emir Salih Magden, Patrick T. Callahan, Nanxi Li, Jonathan D. B. Bradley, Neetesh Singh, Alfonso Ruocco, L. A. Kolodziejski, Erich P. Ippen, Michael R. Watts

Published Feb 15, 2018• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Many spectroscopic techniques today rely on time-resolved measurements under short excitation pulses. Instead of using a chopped pump excitation, or ultrafast optical pulses, we expand on and apply the previously developed set of frequency domain methods to analyze the population level dynamics in rare-earth-doped media. By identifying the full frequency response of the gain medium, this method can accurately yield excited state lifetimes and can also be used to estimate transition cross-sections. The accuracy of the frequency domain methods are verified with Er3+-and Tm3+-doped fibers, and an Al2O3:Tm3+waveguide, recovering similar results as reported by time-resolved techniques. The complete frequency domain model presented here can be used in characterization of novel optical gain media, and can provide insights into population dynamics in solid state amplifiers and lasers.

DOI
10.1109/jstqe.2018.2805807

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Many spectroscopic techniques today rely on time-resolved measurements under short excitation pulses. Instead of using a chopped pump excitation, or ultrafast optical pulses, we expand on and apply the previously developed set of frequency domain methods to analyze the population level dynamics in rare-earth-doped media. By identifying the full frequency response of the gain medium, this method can accurately yield excited state lifetimes and can also be used to estimate transition cross-sections. The accuracy of the frequency domain methods are verified with Er3+-and Tm3+-doped fibers, and an Al2O3:Tm3+waveguide, recovering similar results as reported by time-resolved techniques. The complete frequency domain model presented here can be used in characterization of novel optical gain media, and can provide insights into population dynamics in solid state amplifiers and lasers.
We describe a general numerical method for calculating short-pulse laser propagation in rare-earth-doped materials, which are very important as gain materials for solid-state lasers, fiber lasers and optical amplifiers. The split-step, finite difference method simultaneously calculates changes in the laser pulse as it propagates through the material and calculates the dynamic populations of the rare-earth energy levels at any position within the material and for times during and after the laser pulse has passed through the material. Many traditional theoretical and numerical analyses of laser pulse propagation involve approximations and assumptions that limit their applicability to a narrow range of problems. Our numerical method, however, is more comprehensive and includes the processes of single- and multi-photon absorption, excited state absorption (ESA), energy transfer, upconversion, stimulated emission, cross relaxation, radiative relaxation and non-radiative relaxation. In the models, the rare-earth dopants can have an arbitrary number of energy levels. We are able to calculate the electron population density of every electronic level as a function of, for example, pulse energy, dopant concentration and sample thickness. We compare our theoretical results to published experimental results for rare-earth ions such as Er3+, Yb3+, Tm3+ and Ho3+.
In this paper, we present a low-temperature study of rare earth doped glasses, which are important for creating compact, efficient gain media. We resolved effective Stark components of erbium doped glasses by analyzing their absorption cross sections at T=293K and T=110K. Using these Stark energy levels and the McCumber theory, we calculated the radiative lifetime of the I/-I/ transition in erbium. Our calculated lifetime agrees with the measured lifetime for this transition better than previously accepted methods.
A complete experimental and theoretical study of rare earth doped fiber-optic amplifiers for the first tele-communication window has been made. The thulium doped fluoride fiber amplifier is shown to provide amplification in the 800nm-820nm signal region. A complete steady state theoretical model has been presented and the model has been experimentally verified. The model predicts the gain, noise figure and the amplified spontaneous emission in the 800nm, 1470nm, 1900nm and 2300nm bands. The effect of population trapping at the sp3Fsb4\\sp3F\\sb4sp3Fsb4 energy level of thulium ion is also shown with the help of the model. It has been shown that about 5-15%o of the population is trapped at the sp3Fsb4\\sp3F\\sb4sp3Fsb4 energy level. We have also shown theoretically, the expected gain and noise performance of Thulium doped fluoride fiber amplifiers pumped in the 680nm absorption band. The maximum gain at 806nm is slightly lower than with comparable 780 nm pumping. The gain bandwidth is however found to increase with 680nm pumping. The higher ASE at shorter wavelengths ($<$806nm) reduces the gain at the peak wavelength (806nm). This is a result of the better inversion with three level pumping at 680nm as compared to two level resonant pumping at 780nm. We report an efficient single mode erbium doped flouride fiber amplifier in the 850nm signal band for the first time. The amplification is through an up-conversion process. The erbium doped flouride fiber amplifier was pumped with an estimated pump power of 35mW at 792nm. We have also considered a theoretical model for a single mode erbium doped fluoride fiber amplifier. Efficient amplification occurs because of the strong excited state absorption at the pump wavelength from the sp4Isb13/2\\sp4I\\sb{13/2}sp4Isb13/2 energy level.
Rare-earth doped insulators have been widely recognized as excellent candidate materials for optical quantum computing and information processing. This is principally due to a combination of optical coherence times of up to milliseconds and ground-state hyperfine coherence times of seconds exhibited by rare-earth 4𝑓 𝑁 states. A key contender among rare-earth doped materials is Er3+:Y2SiO5, for which homogeneous linewidths as narrow as 50 Hz have been reported, and for which transitions between the ground and first excited states fall within the 1.5 𝜇m telecommunications wavelength band. However, attempts to utilize this material for spin-wave storage have been hampered by the complexity of the excited-state hyperfine structure, which inhibits the necessary theoretical work required to predict the location of zero first-order zeeman transitions. To address this, a novel crystal-field fitting method was developed to allow an accurate analysis of the 𝐶1 point-group symmetry sites of Y2SiO5. This work was complemented with spectral hole-burning spectroscopy, which revealed ground-state hyperfine level storage with a lifetime of 1.6 ± 0.4 seconds for the 4I15/2𝑍1 → 4F9/2𝐷1 transition. This type of storage time is uncharacteristic for erbium without an external magnetic field, since spin-flips of the unpaired electron in nearby Er3+ ions are typically understood to lead to fast hole filling. The development process of the theoretical and experimental tools required to perform the above work enabled several additional investigations. In particular, the novel crystal-field fitting methods were applied to the 𝑆4 site of Ce3+:LiYF4 and to the 𝐶2𝑣 site of Sm3+:Na+/Li+:CaF2/SrF2. These studies consisted of excellent tests for the developed methods yet also amounted to interesting investigations in their own respect. Similarly, the experimental work afforded an opportunity to directly determine the hyperfine splittings of the 5I8𝑍1 → 5F5𝐷1 transition in Ho3+:KY3F10. This was achieved using high-resolution excitation spectroscopy. Furthermore, the experimentally determined hyperfine structure could be accurately reproduced using a crystal field model. Finally, a lifetime measurement of the 6H7/2 state of Sm3+:LiYF4 was conducted. By utilizing an infrared free-electron laser, pico-second pump-probe spectroscopy allowed for a direct measurements of one of the shortest lifetimes of an RE3+ doped insulator reported in the literature to date. This confirmed the previously suggested two-gradient modification required for the energy-gap law at very short time scales.
The time-frequency characteristics of the transient response of dynamic gratings in erbium-doped fiber are different from stable gratings, which make it has great application value in the fields of fiber laser and optical fiber sensing. In consideration of the time domain characteristics, a time domain response model was built, which was based on metastable Er3+ population rate equation and light field transmission equation. The model simulated the process of establishing dynamic gratings in erbium-doped fiber with time sequence. And the theoretical results showed that the formation time of the dynamic grating gets shorter with higher pump power and shorter Erbium-doped fiber length within the effective length limits, which was consistent with the experimental results obtained by the so called “Strong light and weak light alternation” method except that the measured formation time decay ranges obviously migrated to lower pump power relative to the theoretical results. In consideration of the frequency domain characteristics, the transient two-wave mixing process was approximately simulated by using four-wave mixing equation. The transient reflectance spectra obtained through numerical calculation reflected the evolution rule of the dynamic gratings, which were coincident with the experimental results gotten by the rapid optical frequency modulation method. Under the condition of 1.8m Erbium-doped fiber, the experimental results showed that the turning saturated pump light power from the absorption type dynamic gratings to the gain type ones is about 0.05mW, the maximum relative reflectance variation of the gain dynamic gratings (3%) is 3 times of the absorption types. The measurement results have important references to the practical application of Erbium-doped fiber dynamic gratings.