Single-mode, 980-nm pump lasers for fiber amplifiers

Technical Report · Fri May 22 00:00:00 EDT 1992

OSTI ID:7272132

Crawford, F D; Sharfin, W F; Elman, B; Lauer, R B; Mebrahtu, P

Pump lasers for Er3+-doped silica fiber optical amplifiers must demonstrate excellent spatial mode stability to high output power levels in order to achieve useful gain. 1,2 The pump band at 980 nm is the most efficient of the principle Er3+ absorption bands in terms of gain per input optical power. Pumping at 980 nm is also preferred in comparison to pumping at 1480 nm because it reduces the noise introduced into the amplified optical signal. In this paper we describe the design, fabrication, and characteristics of a high power, MBE-grown 980 nm laser with a simple, weakly-index-guided structure. The geometry of the laser's lateral waveguide is carefully controlled to ensure that all of the power is in the fundamental spatial mode. Far field patterns of these devices are single lobed and stable to the highest measured powers. These Fabry-Perot lasers exhibit single frequency operation to output powers as high as 170 mW, with linewidths as narrow as 5 MHz.

• Research Organization: GTE Labs., Inc., Waltham, MA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7272132
• Report Number(s): AD-P-006980/7/XAB
• Resource Relation: Other Information: This article is from 'OSA Proceedings of the Topical Meeting on Optical Amplifiers and their Applications Held in Snowmass Village, Colorado on 24-26 July 1991. Volume 13,' AD-A252 980, p-34 thru p-37
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
SOLID STATE LASERS
PERFORMANCE
ABSORPTION
AMPLIFIERS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
FABRICATION
FIBERS
GAIN
GEOMETRY
MODE CONTROL
NOISE
OPERATION
OPTICAL EQUIPMENT
POWER
PUMPS
STABILITY
WAVEGUIDES
AMPLIFICATION
CONTROL
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
EVALUATION
LASERS
MATHEMATICS
SORPTION
426002* - Engineering- Lasers & Masers- (1990-)