Abstract
We report optical-damage-resistant Ti:Er:LiNbO
$_{3}$
strip waveguide with high diffusion-doped surface Er
$^{3+}$
concentration. The waveguide was fabricated starting from a commercial X-cut congruent LiNbO
$_{3}$
plate with a two-step technological process in sequence of
simultaneous work of Er
$^{3+}$
diffusion doping and Li-poor vapor
transport equilibration treatment, and fabrication of 6-μm-wide Ti-diffused strip waveguide (Z-propagation). The
waveguide retains still the LiNbO
$_{3}$
phase and has the
waveguiding characteristics similar to the conventional Ti:LiNbO
$_{3}$
waveguide except with a larger loss due to the imperfection of waveguide. Secondary ion mass spectrometry
study shows that the Er
$^{3+}$
diffusion reservoir was exhausted
and the profile is the desired Gaussian-type with a surface concentration 1.0 mol%, which is about two
times larger than the value of conventional Ti:Er:LiNbO
$_{3}$
amplifier. Further optical characterization shows that the waveguide shows stable 1547 nm small-signal gain under
the 980 nm pumping without serious photorefractive effect observed. An unsaturated gain 1.7 dB/cm is
obtained for the available coupled pump power of 160 mW. With increased pump power, optimized Er
$^{3+}$
diffusion condition and degraded loss figure, a higher gain
is expected.
© 2013 IEEE
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