Short review and prospective: chalcogenide glass mid-infrared fibre lasers

Seddon, Angela B; Farries, Mark; Nunes, Joel J; Xiao, Boyu; Furniss, David; Barney, Emma; Phang, Sendy; Chahal, Shweta; Kalfagiannis, Nikolaos; Sojka, Łukasz; Sujecki, Slawomir

Abstract

Rare-earth ion doped, silica glass, optical fibre amplifiers have transformed the world by enabling high speed communications and the Internet. Fibre lasers, based on rare-earth ion doped silica glass optical fibres, achieve high optical powers and are exploited in machining, sensing and medical surgery. However, the chemical structure of silica glass fibres limits the wavelength of laser operation to < 2.5 µm, which excludes the mid-infrared longer wavelength range of 3–50 µm. Rare-earth ion doping of fluoride glasses enables manufacture of fibre lasers up to a limiting 3.92 µm wavelength, but the fluoride glass chemical structure again prevents operation at longer wavelengths. Optical fibre lasers that are constructed from different rare-earth ion doped chalcogenide glass fibres will potentially operate across the 4–10 µm wavelength range, where suitable high-power lasers currently do not exist. We present a short review here of our recent work in achieving first time, continuous wave, mid-infrared fibre lasing beyond 5 μm wavelength in Ce3+-doped selenide chalcogenide fibre. We place this disruptive breakthrough into the wider fibre laser context, and also present the unprecedented advances in new cross-sector applications that will be enabled by mid-infrared fibre lasers in the 4–10 µm wavelength range. To surpass the few mW power output of the Ce3+-doped chalcogenide glass fibre lasing achieved to date, the glass quality of the doped chalcogenide fibres must now be improved, similar to the challenges originally facing the first glass fibre lasers based on silica.

Citation

Seddon, A. B., Farries, M., Nunes, J. J., Xiao, B., Furniss, D., Barney, E., Phang, S., Chahal, S., Kalfagiannis, N., Sojka, Ł., & Sujecki, S. (2024). Short review and prospective: chalcogenide glass mid-infrared fibre lasers. European Physical Journal Plus, 139(2), Article 142. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04841-1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 26, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Feb 8, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024
• Deposit Date: Jan 24, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 9, 2024
• Journal: European Physical Journal Plus
• Electronic ISSN: 2190-5444
• Publisher: EDP Sciences
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 139
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 142
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04841-1
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/30142155
• Additional Information: Received: 2 November 2023; Accepted: 26 December 2023; First Online: 8 February 2024