Planar Er:Yb glass ion exchanged waveguide laser - Electronics Letters

Introduction: Er3+:Yb3+ codoping has become an effective method for producing short, efficient lasers and amplifiers in the long haul telecommunications wavelength range. Ytterbium codoping increases the pump absorption near 980nm and efficient energy transfer between the Yb’’ and the Er3+ ions enables the operation of centimetre long lasers with low Er” concentrations. This mechanism was first demonstrated by Snitzer and Woodcock in hulk glass [I]. More recently, Er3+:Yb3+ codoped fibre lasers [2, 31 and planar waveguide amplifiers [4] have been demonstrated. Ion exchange is a well known method for fabricating integrated optic devices in glass [5] . Ion exchanged devices are inexpensive, robust, and fibre compatible. Monomode planar waveguides lasers have been successfully fabricated in Er3+doped BK-7 glass [6]. The key to this demonstration was the introduction of rare-earth dopants into an ion exchangeable glass host. We report a short, planar Er3+:Yb3+ waveguide laser fabricated by ion exchange.