Engineering Research Equipment: Optical Fiber Lasers

在布朗大学工程系的光波技术实验室，一种制造稀土光纤激光器的新方法已经被开发出来。它们的重要性不仅在于它们在放大电信信号方面的作用，而且在于许多新的传感应用。该技术涉及一种新的气溶胶技术，用于将具有低蒸汽压前体的稀土元素输送并掺入光纤预制体的芯中。含有稀土元素的有机固体溶解在液态有机金属化合物中。在MCVD（改性化学气相沉积）工艺中，将得到的溶液雾化，（大约）4微米直径的液滴通过载气进入衬底管中进行对流用于光纤预制棒的制作。在适当的热源下，这些颗粒蒸发并反应形成多组分氧化物颗粒，这些氧化物颗粒被热电泳沉积并随后烧结。该工艺代表了一种形成高纯度玻璃的新技术，特别是用于使用MCVD工艺的光纤激光器的脐带掺杂。PI寻求额外的设备来帮助表征这些光纤激光器，并评估共掺杂对激光增益的作用。

At the Laboratory for Lightwave Technology within the Division of Engineering at Brown University, a new method for the fabrication of rare earth fiber lasers has been developed. These are important not only for their role in amplification of telecommunications signals, but for a host of novel sensing applications. The technique involves a novel aerosol technique for the transport and incorporation into the core of an optical fiber preform rare earth elements whose precursors have low vapor pressures. Organic solids containing rare earth elements are dissolved in liquid organometallic compounds. The resulting solution is nebulized and the (approximately) four micron diameter droplets are convected by means of a carrier gas into a substrate tube in the MCVD (Modified Chemical Vapor /Deposition) process used optical fiber preform fabrication. At an appropriate heat source, these particles then vaporize and react to form multi- component oxide particles that are thermophoretically deposited and subsequently sintered. This process represents a new technique for the formation of high purity glass, in particular, for the cord doping of fiber lasers using the MCVD process. The PI seeks additional equipment to aide in the characterization of these fiber lasers, and to assess the role of co-doping on laser gain.