Engineering Research Equipment: Optical Fiber Lasers

在布朗大学工程系的光波技术实验室，提出了一种制作稀土光纤激光器的新方法。这不仅是因为它们在放大电信信号方面的作用，而且对于许多新的传感应用来说也是重要的。这项技术涉及一种新的气溶胶技术，用于传输和并入光纤预制件的芯中，其稀土元素前体具有较低的蒸汽压。含有稀土元素的有机固体溶解在液态有机金属化合物中。产生的溶液被雾化，(大约)4微米直径的液滴通过载气被注入到基片管在MCVD(改良化学气相沉积)工艺中采用光纤预制棒制作。在适当的热源下，然后这些颗粒蒸发并反应形成多组分的氧化物颗粒，这些颗粒被热电沉积并随后烧结。这是一种形成高纯玻璃的新技术，特别是对于使用MCVD工艺的光纤激光器的帘线掺杂。PI寻求更多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.