OPTICAL AMPLIFIER AND LASER

摘要

A laser has a resonant cavity defined by a pair of mirrors (6, 10) butted to respective ends of a 3 m fluorozirconate optical fibre (14). The fibre (14) has a DELTA n of 0.014 and a cut-off wavelenght of around 790 nm and is doped to about 500 ppm (weight) with erbium ions. An optical pump source (16) provides a pump signal at 971 nm which excites the erbium ions into the <4>S3/2 energy level to provide lasing at about 546 nm. The laser may alternatively be pumped by a pump signal in the band 791 nm to 812 nm, preferably 801 nm. The pump source is preferably a high power semiconductor laser (16).