Luminescent Ions in Silica-Based Optical Fibers

We present some of our research activities dedicated to doped silica-based optical fibers, aiming at understanding the spectral properties of luminescent ions, such as rare-earth and transition metal elements. The influence of the local environment on dopants is extensively studied: energy transfer mechanisms between rare-earth ions, control of the valence state of Chromium ions, effect of the local phonon energy on Thulium ions emission efficiency and broadening of Erbium ions emission induced by oxide nanoparticles. Knowledge of these effects is essential for photonics applications. keywords optical fiber, silica, spectroscopy, rare-earths, transition metals, energy transfer, valence state, phonon energy, local environment Introduction During the last two decades, the development of sophisticated optical systems and devices based on fiber optics have benefited from the development of very performant optical fiber components. In particular, optical fibers doped with 'active' elements such as rare-earth (RE) ions have allowed the extremely fast development of optical telecommunications [i,ii], lasers [iii] industries and the development of temperature sensors [iv]. The most frequently used RE ions (Nd, Er, Yb, Tm) have applications in three main spectral windows: around 1, 1.5 and 2μm in fiber lasers and sensors based on absorption/fluorescence and around 1.5 μm for ha l-0 04 29 70 3, v er si on 1 9 N ov 2 00 9 Author manuscript, published in "Fiber and Integrated Optics 27, 6 (2008) 484-504" DOI : 10.1080/01468030802269746