GREEN LASER-DIODE-PUMPED

ERBIUM FIBER LASER

David Piehler and Dawn Craven
Applied Photonics Division
Uniphase Corporation
San Jose, California
Norman Kwong
artel Corporation
Alhambra, California
presented at Compact Blue/Green Lasers
Salt Lake City, Utah
Friday, 11 February 1994
paper CFA2
Room-temperature visible upconversion fiber lasers in
rare-earth-doped fluoride glass
Dopant ion
Holmium
Laser wavelengths
(nm)
550
Pump wavelengths
(nm)
645,750,890
:: :::: :::: ::::: ::::::: ::::::::::::::: :::::$45: ::::::::::::::: ::: :::: I
Praseodymium 490,520,540,605 or 635 840 + 1020
Thulium 480 1120
Energy leyels of Er3+ in fluoride glass
(including room-temperature lifetimes)
544 nm
ESA --6 __ ----
---A-
j
------;/--t-----

- ':':-
j!J:
971 nm pump

____ .-____ __
4F 5/2
J 801 nm pump
4F 712
"
!Hl1l2
53/2
801 nm pump
4F9/2

4/9/2
4/11/2
971 nm pump
544 nm
801 nm pump
4/15/2
(0.45 ms)
(0.12 ms)
(7 ms)
(9 ms)
Population dynamics
Rate equation model of 100 mW of 970 nm incident on an Er fiber
with core of 2 Jlm
c 0.5
o
~ 0.4
::J
a.
o
0.. 0.3
co
c
.Q 0.2
t5
~
LL 0.1
5 10 15
time after turn-on (ms)
The long lived 4113/2 level acts as an excitation sink
Fiber
Pump
The erbium fiber laser
length:
material:
dopant:
core diameter:
cutoff wavelength:
numerical aperture:
Ti :sapphire laser
or
InGaAs laser diode
Ortel Corporation
2.2 m
fluorozirconate glass (Le Verre Fluore)
1000 ppm Er
3
+
2 Jlm
800 nm
0.31
EDFA pump module in 14-pin butterfly package
pigtailed to Flexcore 1 060 fiber
Ti:sapph,ire laser pumping
output
coypler
mUTor
..
Q)
16.0
14.0
12.0
:; ~ 10.0
0.3:
'5 E 8.0
o _ 6.0
~
o
a.
0.0
Er fiber lasel
---R=
23%
20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0
using an external mirror cavity
launched 970 nm power (mW)
Er fiber laser
--0---- R = 90% with
.. lasing
Q)
~ 60.0
0
~

R = 23% with
a.
......
lasing
-03:
40.0
Q)
E
.c
.. -
20.0 .................... - :.:8--0.- ----0--- R = 90% without
0
f/)
_ ~ i r - ~ .
lasing
.c
0.0 S .
0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 , 80.0
--- .. --- R = 23% without
launched 970 nm power (mW)
lasing
971 nm Ti:sapphire pumping results
With an R = 23% @ 544 nm output coupler:
Threshold: 31 mW (with respect to coupled power)
Slope efficiency: 51 % (w.r.t.c.p.)
l ~ 1_ mW of green laser light generated from 59 mW of coupled power
-9 nm pump acceptance bandwidth (FWHM) centered at 971 nm (R=90
%
;
25 mW launched)
this work:
BT 1993:
CNET 1992:
BT 1991:
Ti:sa
20
...
...--..
BT 1993
<:>
~ this work
.s 15
(971 ~ )
(971 nm) <:> ...
"-
';CNET 1992 00 Q)
<:>
~
&. ... (971 nm)
0
0
~ 10 &.
<:>
0
Q)
.&..
...
CJ)
<:>
...
0
cu
.&. BT 1991
c
...
Q)
5 &.
<:>
...
0
(801 nm)
Q)
0
"-
.&.
... '" 0>
<:>
... '"
0
0
100 200 300 400
launched pump power (mW)
2 )lm core, 0.31 NA
3 )lm core, 0.20 NA (Brierley, et al., BT Tech. J. 11, 128 (1993))
5.5 )lm core 0.18 NA (Allain, et al., Electron. Lett. 28 111 (1992))
3.4)lm core, 0.18 NA (Whitley, et al., Electron Lett. 27 185 (1991))
EDFA
laser diode
pump module
971 nm
Laser diode pumping
mode-matching
lenses
fiber pigtail
erbium doped
fluoride fiber
high
reflector
mUTor
. coupling efficiency is about 50%
544nm
r.:-.: .. . _ . . :. , I, I11II [p! ' 1. I I I!,! I ij,lI j'n! llH
- ;t t 1 Jl
ti II I "" '-'-'-"!.I:..:..!..!.!.1!.!.!.!J..
1
l..I.ll.1.! I I Il1jl tilll\l! iiI! Ifl1
-,'ill : tllii 11I1:-JlllllllllllllllllfllTllfnnnnrn PI" ""u" .. I ! I !l1[t nIT
1.11 tttttHtHttltlt TEC:t
r
(+) .. , Ii . " i1 dill
Iliii il . WiU
u 6: I "TI 11111
! II \ 0 ,', 1 .1 II
ttl' mH 1+tltttHWHttl "' 11 nlermlslor I
'; 12 NC j I
t,t,i, IiI 13 NC I ./ '11
I
14 TE Cooler(.)
+0 - It i! ! . . . I II
t 111111111111111 1-11111111111111111 111111111111111 1111111111111111111 11111111111111111111111111111111111111 .. ' II I
I., . ,I 111111111111 111"111111
i \; TIl'""!
inl!j I
. , I-II' -, '\ I ! ;, i
i I III
" !I : I Ii
!: : I
2. 0 ;1; ii.! I
:i! rl II I, I
.. . .. 'r"
fiT II II' , I
'. i, tT,1 1
1
1, III I] f ]11
' i I II,!.II I i,l "II'IJ 1,,'11'
\l: :1' :lji dl ' . . If Ililli ! 1111 pi
"''1::- ;m 111 I III fji Wi
-.. W I I r III til!1 tJlU
. IW iii I I I .
40

Zeo
,
I, 0
,
40 1
20
120
lbo
(fI1AJ )
TlST 9v
Diode pumped results
EDFA module cooled to "'10C to operate at "'971 nm.
Approximately 50
0
/0 of module light couples to fiber laser.
Data are given in terms of applied current to the laser diode.
Laser diode + fiber laser can form coupled laser cavities.
LD monitor photodiode reads about 10
0
/0 higher when coupled to fiber.
~
E 2.5
---
E
c 2
~
~
to
(tj 1.5
L-
a>
~ 1
a..
.....
::J
.8- 0.5
::J
o
50
:
I
R = 58% I
I-
<I
J
I>
I ~
100 150
laser diode current (rnA)
Related results
Assuming (1) 50% coupling efficiency,
(2) When coupled to fiber laser LD power increases by '" 1 0 %
For an R = 58% @ 544 nm output coupler
threshold: "'21 mW (w.r.t.c.p.)
slope efficiency: "'24% (w.r. t.c.p.)
2.5 mW of green light generated from "'31 mW of coupled 971 nm pump light
In comparison:
At BT Laboratories (Massicott, et al., Electron. Lett. 29, 2119 (1993)),
a 1.1 J.lm core, 0.4 NA (Ac = 600 nm) Er fibre laser generated
3 mW of green light from 40 mW of coupled 800 nm pump light
from an AIGaAs laser diode.
"Warm-up" effect
diode pumped Er fiber warm up
1
.--..
0.5 .
3:
E
-- ...
0.2
Q)
~
0.1
0
a.
+oJ
i1. 0.05
S
0
c 0.02
Q)
~ 0.01
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
minutes after turn-on
Highly dependent on pump power and fiber laser cavity loss
Once warm, fiber stays warm for hours.
"hand-waving" solution
Summary
Upconversion-pumped Er fiber lasers are capable of greater than 50% IR to
green efficiency.
2.5 mW of 544 nm light generated from a "40-mW" EDFA module.
Results can be scaled to higher power: Doubling the diode pump power
should increase the green output to over 10 mW.