Broadband amplified spontaneous emission double-clad fibre source with central wavelengths near 2 <font>μ</font>m

Abstract

Amplified spontaneous emission broadband light around 2 µm has been successfully generated in both double-clad Tm–silica and Tm:Ho fluoride fibres using a high-power 803 nm diode laser pump source. For the Tm–silica fibre an output power was produced greater than 40 mW and with a bandwidth (full width at half-maximum (FWHM)) of about 50 nm. For output powers greater than 90 mW, the FWHM of the output spectrum reduced to about 40 nm. The Tm:Ho fluoride fibre source produced about 2 mW output power and an FWHM of about 20 nm; this was reduced to about 10 nm as the output power was scaled up to 20 mW. The central wavelength for each system was greater than 2 µm.