Study of lanthanum aluminum silicate glasses for passive and active optical fibers

We report on SiO2-Al2O3-La2O3 glasses – with and without Yb2O3 – suitable for nonlinear and fiber laser applications. We also present successful supercontinuum generation and fiber laser operation around 1060 nm in step-index fibers. We have optimized the glass compositions in terms of thermal and optical requirements for both a high La2O3 (24 mol%) and Yb2O3(6 mol%) concentration. The aluminum concentration was adjusted to about 21 mol% Al2O3 to increase the solubility of lanthanum and ytterbium in the glass beyond possible MCVD based techniques. The glasses have been characterized by dilatometrical methods to find transition temperatures from 860 to 880°C and thermal expansion coefficients between 4.1 and 7.0 × 10-6 K-1. Structured step index fibers with a SiO2-Al2O3-La2O3 core and silica cladding have been realized showing a fiber loss minimum of about 500 dB/km at 1200 nm wavelength. The chromatic dispersion could be adjusted to shift the zero dispersion wavelength (ZDW) close to the pump wavelength of 1550 nm in a supercontinuum generation setup. First fiber laser experiments show an efficiency of about 41 % with a remarkably reduced photodarkening compared to MCVD based fibers.

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