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Erbium-doped Laser Gain Media

Definition: laser gain media doped with erbium ions

More general term: solid-state laser gain media

German: Erbium-dotierte Verstärkermedien

Categories: optical materials, laser devices and laser physics

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Erbium (chemical symbol: Er) is a chemical element belonging to the group of rare earth metals. It is widely used in the form of the trivalent ion Er³⁺ as the laser-active dopant of gain media based on various host materials, including both crystals and glasses.

Erbium-doped Glasses

Erbium-doped glasses, mostly of silicate and phosphate types, are used both for bulk lasers and fiber lasers and amplifiers. The most common laser transition (also widely used in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers) is that from the ⁴I_{13/2} manifold to the ground-state manifold ⁴I_{15/2} (Figure 1). Depending on the glass composition, the transition wavelength is usually somewhere between 1.53 and 1.6 μm. Because that transition is a quasi-three-level transition, erbium-doped laser and amplifiers require a significant excitation density of the erbium ions, and erbium lasers typically exhibit a high threshold pump power.

energy level structure of the trivalent erbium ion — Figure 1: Energy level structure of the trivalent erbium ion, and some common optical transitions.

The most common pump scheme is based on the transition ⁴I_{15/2} → ⁴I_{11/2} with a wavelength around 0.9–1 μm, although in-band pumping (⁴I_{15/2} → ⁴I_{13/2}, e.g. at 1.45 μm) is also possible. A multi-phonon transition, which is relatively fast in silicate glasses (due to their high phonon energies), leads from ⁴I_{11/2} to ⁴I_{13/2}. The upper-state lifetime of ⁴I_{13/2} is of the order of 8–10 ms, whereas all higher-lying levels have lifetimes of at most a few microseconds due to fast multi-phonon decay.

Particularly in bulk crystals, but also in fibers, efficient pump absorption on the ⁴I_{15/2} → ⁴I_{11/2} transition is difficult to achieve because the absorption cross-sections are relatively small, and the doping concentration is limited by the need to avoid excessive quenching processes. A common method to solve this problem is codoping with ytterbium (Yb³⁺) sensitizer ions, which leads to an erbium-ytterbium-doped laser gain medium. The ytterbium ions can efficiently absorb pump radiation e.g. at 980 nm, and then transfer the energy to erbium ions in the ground-state manifold, bringing them into ⁴I_{11/2}. From that level, the ions are quickly transferred into the upper laser level ⁴I_{13/2}, so that energy transfer back to ytterbium is suppressed. Erbium–ytterbium-doped fibers are used e.g. for erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and for short fiber lasers.

The behavior of Er³⁺ ions is completely different in some host glasses (e.g. fluoride glasses) with a lower phonon energy, which strongly reduces multi-phonon transition rates. In such glasses, a variety of higher-lying energy levels can be populated, and a number of different pumping and lasing schemes are possible. For example, it is possible to realize green-emitting upconversion fiber lasers [2], or lasers emitting around 2.9 μm [12].

erbium cross-sections — Figure 2: Absorption and emission cross-sections for erbium ions in Er:Yb-doped phosphate glass, with data from Ref. [10].

erbium gain — Figure 3: Effective gain from the data in Figure 1, with a degree of excitation from 0 to 100% in steps of 10%.

In addition to the mentioned optical and multi-phonon transitions, many energy transfer processes can occur, particularly for high doping concentrations. For example, cooperative upconversion can occur, where one erbium ion in ⁴I_{13/2} transfers energy to a second ion in that level, resulting in one ion in ⁴I_{9/2} and another one in the ground-state manifold. Due to the multitude of excited levels, and also because of the different behavior of ions in clusters, it is difficult to obtain reliable spectroscopic data for comprehensive modeling of such processes.

Erbium-doped bulk glasses are used e.g. for Q-switched lasers (e.g. as microchip lasers) emitting in the 1.5-μm spectral region, as are applied e.g. for range finding. Such glasses can also be pumped with flash lamps, particularly when the absorption efficiency is increased, e.g. with chromium (Cr³⁺) or ytterbium (Yb³⁺) codopants. (Such codopants can absorb additional energy from the pump light and partially transfer it to erbium ions.) The main application of erbium-doped glasses, however, is in erbium-doped fiber amplifiers for optical fiber communications.

Erbium-doped Crystals

Lasing of erbium ions was first realized with highly doped Er:YAG crystals [1]. In that case, the laser transition is ⁴I_{11/2} → ⁴I_{13/2}, with an emission wavelength around 2.9 μm. For low doping concentrations, this laser transition would be self-terminating, as the lower level has a significantly longer lifetime than the upper level. For high erbium concentrations, however, complicated energy transfer processes changes this situation.

Er:YAG lasers can also be operated on the ⁴I_{13/2} → ⁴I_{15/2} transition, then emitting around 1.645 μm. Efficient operation can be achieved by in-band pumping e.g. with an erbium-doped fiber laser emitting at 1.53 μm.

Er:YAG crystals can be pumped with flash lamps or (much more efficiently) with laser diodes. They are often used in Q-switched lasers. The 2.9-μm light is strongly absorbed in water, making such lasers suitable for a variety of medical applications.

Erbium is also sometimes used in other laser crystals, such as Er:YLF, Er:YALO, tungstates and vanadates.

Suppliers

The RP Photonics Buyer's Guide contains 36 suppliers for erbium-doped laser gain media. Among them:

iXblue

The amplification of optical transmission signals is enabled through our high efficiency erbium-doped fibers (ideal for C and L band amplifiers). Our wide range of erbium-doped optical fibers allows for tailored optical amplifiers (EDFAs) performance based on your requirements. iXblue’s erbium-doped fiber (EDF) products have been optimized to fulfill the exigency of high efficiency and low noise EDFAs in the C & L bands. They cover a wide range of applications, from telecom to LIDAR. Space radiation versions are available (TRL 9).

Benefits & features:

low noise figure
flat gain shape
high efficiency
low splice loss
highly consistent spectroscopic data
80 µm reduced cladding on request
PM Panda structure

Applications: 1.5-μm lasers and amplifiers, EDFAs, fiber lasers, small footprint fiber amplifiers.

Bibliography

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[2]	A. J. Silversmith et al., “Green infrared-pumped erbium upconversion laser”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 51, 1977 (1987), DOI:10.1063/1.98316
[3]	M. E. Fermann et al., “Efficient operation of an Yb-sensitised Er fiber laser at 1.56 μm”, Electron. Lett. 24, 1135 (1988), DOI:10.1049/el:19880772
[4]	F. Tong et al., “551 nm diode-laser-pumped upconversion laser”, Electron. Lett. 25, 1389 (1989), DOI:10.1049/el:19890930
[5]	P. R. Morkel et al., “Theoretical modeling of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers with excited-state absorption”, Opt. Lett. 14 (19), 1062 (1989), DOI:10.1364/OL.14.001062
[6]	T. Hebert et al., “Blue and green CW upconversion lasing in Er:YLiF₄”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 57, 1727 (1990), DOI:10.1063/1.104048
[7]	W. J. Miniscalco, “Erbium-doped glasses for fiber amplifiers at 1500 nm”, IEEE J. Lightwave Technol. 9 (2), 234 (1991), DOI:10.1109/50.65882
[8]	W. L. Barnes et al., “Absorption and emission cross-section of Er³⁺ doped silica fibers”, IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 27 (4), 1004 (1991), DOI:10.1109/3.83335
[9]	T. J. Whitley et al., “Upconversion pumped green lasing in erbium doped fluorozirconate fibre”, Electron. Lett. 27 (20), 1785 (1991), DOI:10.1049/el:19911110
[10]	S. Konkanen et al., “High Er concentration phosphate glasses for planar waveguide amplifiers”, Proc. SPIE 2996, 32 (1997), DOI:10.1117/12.271162
[11]	G. G. Vienne et al., “Fabrication and characterization of Yb³⁺:Er³⁺ phosphosilicate fibers for lasers”, J. Lightwave Technol. 16 (11), 1990 (1998), DOI:10.1109/50.730360
[12]	M. Pollnau and S. D. Jackson, “Erbium 3 μm fiber lasers”, JSTQE 7 (1), 30 (2001), DOI:10.1109/2944.924006
[13]	J. F. Philipps et al., “Spectroscopic and lasing properties of Er³⁺:Yb³⁺-doped fluoride phosphate glasses”, Appl. Phys. B 72, 399 (2001), DOI:10.1007/s003400100515
[14]	S. Tanabe, “Rare-earth-doped glasses for fiber amplifiers in broadband telecommunication”, C. R. Chimie 5, 815 (2002)
[15]	G. C. Valley, “Modeling cladding-pumped Er/Yb fiber amplifiers”, Opt. Fiber Technol. 7, 21 (2001), DOI:10.1006/ofte.2000.0351
[16]	H. Scheife et al., “Advances in up-conversion lasers based on Er³⁺ and Pr³⁺”, Opt. Mater. 26 (4), 365 (2004), DOI:10.1016/j.optmat.2003.10.010
[17]	D. Garbuzov et al., “110 W (0.9 J) pulsed power from resonantly diode-laser-pumped 1.6-μm Er:YAG laser”, Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 121101 (2005), DOI:10.1063/1.2051803
[18]	Y. E. Young et al., “Efficient 1645-nm Er:YAG laser”, Opt. Lett. 29 (10), 1075 (2004), DOI:10.1364/OL.29.001075
[19]	J. O. White et al., “Resonant pumping and upconversion in 1.6 μm Er³⁺ lasers”, J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 24 (9), 2454 (2007), DOI:10.1364/JOSAB.24.002454
[20]	C. C. Baker et al., “Rare earth co-doping for increased efficiency of resonantly pumped Er-fiber lasers”, Optical Materials Express 9 (3), 1041 (2019), DOI:10.1364/OME.9.001041
[21]	L. Weiss et al., “Erbium dopants in nanophotonic silicon waveguides”, Optica 8 (1), 40 (2021), DOI:10.1364/OPTICA.413330

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