Impact of doping profiles on the formation of laser-active centers in bismuth-doped GeO2–SiO2 glass fibers

Abstract

Multi-wavelength-band transmission technology based on the exploitation of the extended spectral region is considered as a potential approach to increase the transmission capacity in the deployed fiber-optic communication infrastructure. The development of optical amplifiers operating in the O-, E-, S-, and U-telecom bands is an extremely important challenge for the successful implementation of this technology. Bismuth-doped fibers are of increasing interest as gain materials, which can be used to provide broadband amplification in the mentioned telecom bands. This is due to the ability of Bi ions incorporated into glass network to form bismuth active centers (BACs) with specific optical properties, which are primarily determined by the glass modifiers. In this work, the impact of the doping profiles of both Ge atoms as glass modifiers and Bi ions on the BACs formation is studied using a series of bismuth-doped fibers fabricated by the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) technique. The Bi-to-BACs conversion efficiency in various spatial regions of the studied samples is presented. It is turned out that for high-Bi concentration regions, the conversion efficiency is very low (less than 10%). In addition, the relationship of the conversion efficiency to the distribution of Bi ions and/or Ge atoms is discussed. Finally, a continuous-wave laser at 1.46 μm with a record slope efficiency of 80% is demonstrated using a Bi-doped fiber with confined doping profile, where the Bi-to-BACs conversion efficiency is 35%. This paper provides new information which might help to facilitate understanding of the features of Bi-doped fibers and their potentially achievable characteristics.