Mixed Former Effect: A Kind of Composition Adjusting Method of Er-Doped Glass for Broadband Amplification

Abstract

A compositional adjusting method called the mixed former effect is proposed to improve effectively optical properties such as the emission cross section, the fluorescence full width at half maximum (FWHM) and the lifetime of the 4I13/2 level of Er-doped glass. A kind of Er-doped bismuth-based glass illustrated high emission cross section (σep = 0.66-0.90 pm2), large fluorescence FWHM (68-85 nm), and relatively long lifetime of the 4I13/2 level (τm = 1.6-4.3 ms) using this method. A comparison of spectroscopic parameters shows that bismuth-based glass is much better for broadband amplifiers than other glass hosts.