Experimental observation of gain in a resonantly pumped Pr3+-doped chalcogenide glass mid-infrared fibre amplifier notwithstanding the signal excited-state absorption

Shen, Meili; Furniss, David; Farries, Mark; Jayasuriya, Dinuka; Tang, Zhuoqi; Sojka, Lukasz; Sujecki, Slawomir; Benson, Trevor M.; Seddon, Angela B.

Abstract

We demonstrate a maximum gain of 4.6 dB at a signal wavelength of 5.28 μm in a 4.1 μm resonantly pumped Pr3+- doped selenide-based chalcogenide glass fibre amplifier of length 109 mm, as well as a new signal excited-stated absorption (ESA) at signal wavelengths around 5.5 μm. This work is to the best of our knowledge is the first experimental demonstration of gain at mid-infrared (MIR) wavelengths in a Pr3+-doped chalcogenide fibre amplifier. The signal ESA of Pr3+ ions is attributed to the transition 3H6→(3F4, 3F3) after the pump ESA (3H5→3H6) at a pump wavelength of 4.1 μm, which absorbs the MIR signal at wavelengths of 5.37, 5.51 and 5.57 μm, and so spoils the amplifier’s performance at these wavelengths. Thus, this signal ESA should be suppressed in a resonantly pumped Pr3+-doped chalcogenide fibre amplifier.

Citation

Shen, M., Furniss, D., Farries, M., Jayasuriya, D., Tang, Z., Sojka, L., …Seddon, A. B. (2019). Experimental observation of gain in a resonantly pumped Pr3+-doped chalcogenide glass mid-infrared fibre amplifier notwithstanding the signal excited-state absorption. Scientific Reports, 9, Article 11426. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47432-w

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 5, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 6, 2019
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Deposit Date: Jul 31, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 7, 2019
• Journal: Scientific Reports
• Electronic ISSN: 2045-2322
• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 9
• Article Number: 11426
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-47432-w
• Keywords: Multidisciplinary
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2361340
• Publisher URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-47432-w
• Additional Information: Received: 4 April 2019; Accepted: 5 July 2019; First Online: 6 August 2019; : The authors declare no competing interests.