High concentration Yb-Er co-doped phosphate glass for optical fiber amplification

We present the fabrication and characterization of two high concentration Yb3+-Er3+ co-doped double clad phosphate glass optical fibers (named A and B for short) manufactured by preform drawing, with the preform being obtained by the rod-in-tube technique. Optical amplification was demonstrated by core pumping 27 mm of fiber A (7/25/70 μm and NA = 0.17 between core and inner cladding) with a laser diode at 976 nm, achieving a 10.7 dB internal gain, i.e., 4.0 dB cm−1, for small signal input at 1535 nm. Amplification was also demonstrated in a cladding-pumped counter propagating configuration using both fibers A and B (12/48/140 μm and NA = 0.08). A maximum internal gain of 18.5 dB was achieved with 8 cm of fiber B, corresponding to an amplification of 2.3 dB cm−1, for small signal input at 1535 nm.