Polarization-dependent gain in bismuth-doped phospho- and germanosilicate fiber amplifiers.

Polarization-dependent gain (PDG) effect was studied in a conventional core-pumping configuration of bismuth-doped fiber amplifiers (BDFAs) based on PANDA-type phospho- and germanosilicate core fibers. The PDG value was determined as the gain difference between the orthogonal signal polarizations, which was found to be in range of 2.5-3 dB at total gain of >20 dB in such BDFAs. This effect is more pronounced for BDFA with a germanosilicate fiber. The experimental results are in a good agreement with the calculated data derived from the simulation model, relying on the anisotropy parameter of bismuth active centers (BACs) obtained from the degree of luminescence polarization, which ranges between 9 and 12% for BACs-Si and 18 and 22% for BACs-P. The obtained data can be useful for the optimization of performance of BDFAs and studying structural peculiarities of BACs.

Anti-Stokes luminescence in bismuth-doped silica and germania-based fibers.

Luminescence excitation spectra of active centers in bismuth-doped vitreous SiO(2) and vitreous GeO(2) optical fibers under the two-step excitation have been obtained for the first time. The results revealed only one bismuth-related IR active center formed in each of these fibers. The observed IR luminescence bands at 1430 nm (1650 nm) and 830 nm (950 nm), yellow-orange (red) band at 580 nm (655 nm), violet (blue) band at 420 nm (480 nm) belong to this bismuth-related active center in the vitreous SiO(2) (vitreous GeO(2)), correspondingly.

Optical gain and laser generation in bismuth-doped silica fibers free of other dopants.

Luminescence emission and excitation spectra of bismuth-doped silica optical fibers free of other dopants have been obtained to construct an emission-excitation map in a wide wavelength range of 400-1600 nm. The main low-lying energy levels of the bismuth active centers in such fibers have been determined. For the first time (to our knowledge), optical gain and lasing have been obtained in such fibers. A gain of 8 dB has been achieved with a pump power of 340 mW, and a cw fiber laser emitting at 1460 nm with an output power of 40 mW and an efficiency of ≈3% has been created.

Compact and efficient O-band bismuth-doped phosphosilicate fiber amplifier for fiber-optic communications.

During last decades there has been considerable interest in developing a fiber amplifier for the 1.3-[Formula: see text]m spectral region that is comparable in performance to the Er-doped fiber amplifier operating near 1.55 [Formula: see text]m. It is due to the fact that most of the existing fiber-optic communication systems that dominate terrestrial networks could be used for the data transmission in O-band (1260-1360 nm), where dispersion compensation is not required, providing a low-cost increase of the capacity. In this regard, significant efforts of the research laboratories were initially directed towards the study of the praseodymium-doped fluoride fiber amplifier having high gain and output powers at the desired wavelengths. However, despite the fact that this type of amplifiers had rapidly appeared as a commercial amplifier prototype it did not receive widespread demand in the telecom industry because of its low efficiency. It stimulated the search of novel optical materials for this purpose. About 10 years ago, a new type of bismuth-doped active fibers was developed, which turned out to be a promising medium for amplification at 1.3 [Formula: see text]m. Here, we report on the development of a compact and efficient 20-dB (achieved for signal powers between [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] dBm) bismuth-doped fiber amplifier for a wavelength region of 1300-1350 nm in the forward, backward and bi-directional configurations, which can be pumped by a commercially available laser diode at 1230 nm with an output power of 250 mW. The compactness of the tested amplifier was provided by using a depressed cladding active fiber with low bending loss, which was coiled on a reel with a radius of 1.5 cm. We studied the gain and noise figure characteristics at different pump and signal powers. A record gain coefficient of 0.18 dB/mW (at the pump-to-signal power conversion efficiency of above 27[Formula: see text]) has been achieved.