1 kW peak power passively Q-switched Nd^3+-doped glass integrated waveguide laser

Abstract

Embedded optical sensors always require more compact, stable, and powerful laser sources. In this Letter, we present a fully integrated passively Q-switched laser, which has been realized by a Ag(+)/Na(+) ion exchange on a Nd(3+)-doped phosphate glass. A BDN-doped cellulose acetate thick film is deposited on the waveguide, acting as an upper cladding and providing a distributed saturable absorption. At λ=1054 nm, the device emits pulses of 1.3 ns FWHM with a repetition rate of 28 kHz. These performances, coupled with the 1 kW peak power, are promising for applications such as supercontinuum generation.

High-aluminum phosphate glasses for single-mode waveguide-typed red light source

“…Quantum yield can be worked as a selection criterion of luminesce materials for potential applications in solid-state lighting and is defined as the ratio of the number of emitted photons to the number of absorbed photons [44,45]. Obviously, the absorbed (N abs ) and emitted photon (N emit ) numbers can be estimated by integrating the distribution with the wavenumber.…”

“…K + -Na + ion-exchange is one of the most frequently-used techniques to fabricate low-loss optical device that can be effectively coupled with single-mode fibers, which is mainly attributed to the facts that the refractive index selectively raised with the K + ions exchanged into the glass substrate when the glass substrate is submerged in pure molten KNO 3 , and during K + -Na + ion exchange process no concentration control of the melt is required and no subsequent metallic ion clusters are formed [39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47]. In the previous work, an attempt was made at fabricating waveguide devices in NMAP (Na 2 OMgO-Al 2 O 3 -P 2 O 5 ) glass substrates incorporating with trivalent rareearth ions by K + -Na + ion exchange, and after ion exchange NMAP glass substrate appears appropriate single-mode in near-infrared (NIR) region [48].…”

Observation of Raman scattering in glass integrated waveguides: a route towards supercontinuum generation

“…Another approach consists in the integration of the pulsed laser. A glass integrated Q-Switch laser has indeed been reported recently 16 . This ion-exchanged laser emits nanosecond pulses with a 2 kW peak power that was high enough to generate a supercontinuum in an 8 m-long PCF.…”

High confinement ion-exchanged waveguides for nonlinear applications

“…For instance, a high power Q-switched laser has been successfully manufactured on neodymium-doped phosphate glass [4]. An output peak power of 2.8 kW and a 0.6 ns pulse duration were demonstrated with this device [5], so that a supercontinuum can be generated when coupled to a 8 m long photonic crystal fiber. Those sources are needed in many applications such as optical coherent tomography and spectral analysis, so that a fully integrated supercontinuum source would be highly desirable.…”