Investigation of the slot mode enhancement of erbium-doped polymer silicon on insulator waveguide amplifiers

Abstract

Erbium doped Polymer hybrid slot waveguide amplifier at λ =1530 nm with a 1480 nm pumping wavelength is investigated. Both, the waveguide structure parameters and the Er 3+ -doped polymer intrinsic spectroscopic parameters are swept to analyze the gain contribution sensitivities. Assuming moderate optical transmission losses of 10dB/cm, the predicted net gain typically varies from 0 to 10dB. Due to the excited state absorption (ESA) mechanism in the high intensity slot region, the signal gain is significantly suppressed for large pumping power, leading to the counterintuitive result that there is an optimum pump power value in the sub-100 mW range. The effect of the ion concentration and the ion-ion interaction is considered giving different adjusted parameters in every particular case.