AMPLIFYING OPTICAL FIBER OPERATING AT A WAVELENGTH IN THE RANGE OF 1000-1700 NM, METHODS OF FABRICATING THE SAME, AND FIBER LASER

摘要

The invention relates to lasers and fiber optics. An amplifying optical fiber operating at a wavelength in the range of 1000-1700 nm comprises an oxide glass core to provide amplification and at least one oxide glass cladding. According to the invention the core contains oxides of elements selected from the group consisting of silicon, germanium, phosphorus, bismuth, aluminum, gallium at concentration of bismuth oxide of 10-4-5 mol %, concentration of silicon and germanium oxides, taken together or separately, of 70-99.8999 mol %, concentration of aluminum and gallium oxides, taken together or separately, of 0.1-20 mol %, concentration of phosphorus oxide from 0 to 10 mol %, and provides a maximum optical gain at least 10 times greater than the nonresonant loss factor in the optical fiber. An outside oxide glass cladding comprises fused silica. The optical fiber core has an absorption band in the 1000 nm region, pumping to which region provides an increased efficiency of power conversion of pump light into luminescence light in the 1000-1700 nm range as compared to pumping to another absorption bands in which pumping brings about luminescence in the 1000-1700 nm range. The optical fiber emits luminescence in the range of 1000-1700 nm when excited by light with wavelengths in the range of 750-12000 nm and a half-height width of the luminescence band of more than 120 nm, and luminescence band boundaries defined as points in which the luminescence intensity drops twice relative to the intensity in the luminescence band maximum lie within the 1000-1700 nm spectral range.