Rare earth doped and large effective area optical fibers for fiber lasers and amplifiers

摘要

Various embodiments described herein include rare earth doped glass compositions that may be used in optical fiber and rods having large core sizes. Such optical fibers and rods may be employed in fiber lasers and amplifiers. The index of refraction of the glass may be substantially uniform and may be close to that of silica in some embodiments. Possible advantages to such features include reduction of formation of additional waveguides within the core, which becomes increasingly a problem with larger core sizes.

主权项

1. An optical fiber system for providing optical amplification, said optical fiber system comprising:
a large-core optical fiber comprising:
a core having a core radius p and a core index of refraction ncore, wherein said core comprises a doped region;a first cladding disposed about said core, said first cladding having an outer radius ρ1 and an index of refraction nc1, said core and said first cladding having a difference in index of refraction Δn =ncore−nc1; anda second cladding disposed about said first cladding, said first cladding and said second cladding having a difference in index of refraction Δn1, said second cladding comprising holes that are configured to provide leakage channels such that said large-core optical fiber supports one or a few modes and higher order modes are leaked,wherein the first cladding radius, ρ1, is greater than about 1.1ρ and less than about 2ρ, and the refractive index difference between said first cladding and said second cladding, Δn1, is greater than about 1.5Δn and less than about 50Δn,wherein said large-core optical fiber comprises a combined waveguide formed by said core and said first cladding layer, said combined waveguide configured such that a mode supported in said core has increased gain relative to a mode having substantial power in said first cladding.