High gain erbium doped tellurium oxide waveguide amplifier

Tellurium oxide, the main component of tellurite glasses, offers a number of advantages as emission hosts for Erbium doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWAs) over other materials because of its high refractive index (larger emission cross section and more compact devices), large emission bandwidth, low ion to ion cross relaxation, relative independence of the 1550nm Erbium lifetime on concentration, and high Erbium solubility as has been demonstrated in tellurite glass and fiber amplifiers [1-4]. Whilst there has until now been no demonstration of tellurite based EDWAs with high gain [5], it is clear that tellurite based devices have the potential to deliver higher ultimate gain per unit length and bandwidth than previous demonstrations in other materials [4].