TY - JOUR
T1 - Emission properties of erbium-doped Ge-Ga-Se glasses, thin films and waveguides for laser amplifiers
AU - Yan, Kunlun
AU - Vu, Khu
AU - Yang, Zhiyong
AU - Wang, Rongping
AU - Debbarma, Sukanta
AU - Luther-Davies, Barry
AU - Madden, Steve
PY - 2014/3
Y1 - 2014/3
N2 - We report, for the first time, Er-doped Ge-Ga-Se films and waveguides deposited using co-thermal evaporation and patterned with plasma etching. The emission properties of the bulk glasses were studied as a function of Erbium doping, showing for the first time that there is a clear concentration quenching effect in the Ge-Ga-Se glasses with a linear radiative lifetime degradation slope of -0.48 ms/mol% Er from a low concentration lifetime of 1.7 ms, even when sufficient Gallium is present to ensure homogeneous distribution of the Erbium. A region between approximately 0.5 and 0.75 mol% Erbium however is shown to provide sufficient doping, good photoluminescence and adequate lifetime to envisage practical planar waveguide amplifier devices. Film emission properties at 0.7 mol% doping were studied and compared with the bulk counterpart showing adequate lifetimes and photoluminescence. Erbium doped films with ~0.8 dB/cm propagation loss at 1550 nm limited by Mie scattering off small particles ejected from the evaporation crucible were fabricated. Planar hybrid Er-Ge-Ga-Se/As2S3 rib waveguides fabricated through photolithography and plasma etching demonstrated propagation losses of ~2 dB/cm at 1650 nm limited by particulate scattering.
AB - We report, for the first time, Er-doped Ge-Ga-Se films and waveguides deposited using co-thermal evaporation and patterned with plasma etching. The emission properties of the bulk glasses were studied as a function of Erbium doping, showing for the first time that there is a clear concentration quenching effect in the Ge-Ga-Se glasses with a linear radiative lifetime degradation slope of -0.48 ms/mol% Er from a low concentration lifetime of 1.7 ms, even when sufficient Gallium is present to ensure homogeneous distribution of the Erbium. A region between approximately 0.5 and 0.75 mol% Erbium however is shown to provide sufficient doping, good photoluminescence and adequate lifetime to envisage practical planar waveguide amplifier devices. Film emission properties at 0.7 mol% doping were studied and compared with the bulk counterpart showing adequate lifetimes and photoluminescence. Erbium doped films with ~0.8 dB/cm propagation loss at 1550 nm limited by Mie scattering off small particles ejected from the evaporation crucible were fabricated. Planar hybrid Er-Ge-Ga-Se/As2S3 rib waveguides fabricated through photolithography and plasma etching demonstrated propagation losses of ~2 dB/cm at 1650 nm limited by particulate scattering.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84896793466&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1364/OME.4.000464
DO - 10.1364/OME.4.000464
M3 - Article
SN - 2159-3930
VL - 4
SP - 464
EP - 475
JO - Optical Materials Express
JF - Optical Materials Express
IS - 3
ER -