Multi‐component yttrium aluminosilicate (YAS) fiber prepared by melt‐in‐tube method for stable single‐frequency laser

Abstract

The multi-component glass fibers have demonstrated their unique advantages in the application of single-frequency lasers due to their higher solubility of rareearth ions and thus a higher gain per unit length in a compact fiber laser cavity.In this study, multi-component yttrium aluminosilicate (YAS) fiber with high doping concentration of Yb 3+ was prepared by the "melt-in-tube" (MIT) method. A unit-length gain of 3 dB/cm was obtained in a 4.4 cm-long YAS fiber, the laser output slope efficiency reached 23.8% in a 10 cm-long Yb:YAS fiber. Single-frequency laser operation was achieved in a 1.7-cm-long Yb:YAS active fiber. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of single-frequency laser with this YAS glass fiber as gain medium. The novel multi-component YAS fiber can be applied as a new gain material to realize single-frequency fiber laser.

Er:YAG/Yb:YAG nanopowders‐derived Er/Yb co‐doped yttrium aluminosilicate (YAS) fibers fabricated by UV‐curable nanocomposites for 1.5‐µm single‐frequency fiber lasers

“…3 RE-doped YAS fibers have been demonstrated to have significant advantages in short-cavity laser to realize single-frequency operation due to its high signal gain and pumping absorption coefficient. [4][5][6] The relatively high concentrations of Al and Y in YAS fiber have ability to suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering. 7 Normally, the fabrication of RE-doped YAS fiber is completed using RE:YAG crystal or ceramic rods and melting-in-tube (MIT) method.…”

“…It is a challenging to achieve high RE‐doped concentration in traditional RE‐doped silica fibers due to limited RE ions solubility and concentration quenching effect, which result in low pump absorption or low gain 3 . RE‐doped YAS fibers have been demonstrated to have significant advantages in short‐cavity laser to realize single‐frequency operation due to its high signal gain and pumping absorption coefficient 4–6 . The relatively high concentrations of Al and Y in YAS fiber have ability to suppress the stimulated Brillouin scattering 7 .…”

Microstructure and Faraday effect of Tb2O3‐Al2O3‐SiO2‐B2O3 glasses for fiber‐based magneto‐optical applications

“…Especially, yttrium aluminosilicate (YAS) glass attracts the attention of researchers and YAS fibers doped with different rare-earth ions have been applied to fiber lasers including single-frequency and mode-locked fiber lasers. [13][14][15][16][17] The YAS glasses and their optical fiber analogs are considered to be capable of realizing a high doping of rare-earth ions while maintaining good compatibility with silica glass fiber systems from a point of view of refractive index and thermal expansion coefficient. Those features also predict their advantages as fiber-based MO devices.…”

“…Starting from the same perspective, aluminosilicate glasses are considered to be a candidate with a good overall performance for fiber‐related MO applications. Especially, yttrium aluminosilicate (YAS) glass attracts the attention of researchers and YAS fibers doped with different rare‐earth ions have been applied to fiber lasers including single‐frequency and mode‐locked fiber lasers 13–17 . The YAS glasses and their optical fiber analogs are considered to be capable of realizing a high doping of rare‐earth ions while maintaining good compatibility with silica glass fiber systems from a point of view of refractive index and thermal expansion coefficient.…”

Glass: The carrier of light—Part II—A brief look into the future of optical fiber

“…The crystal-derived all-glass optical fibers have been discussed above and represent an exciting and potentially high impact area for continued study, particularly as relates to fiber-based high energy laser 20,53,82 and sensor 70 systems. Of those reported to date, by far the most studied and practically developed are those of the YAG-derived yttrium aluminosilicate systems, [221][222][223][224][225][226][227][228][229][230][231] which have exhibited quite remarkable properties for what is a relatively simple material system and straight-forward fiber processing approach. Certainly, expanding the range of crystal-derived fiber compositions, especially in further reducing, if not entirely negating, Brillouin scattering altogether (the so-called "ZeBrA" condition 232 ), would represent both fascinating new glass and optical science as well as be very technologically impactful.…”