Modelling of chalcogenide glass fibre lasers for MIR generation

The presentation gives an account of recent developments in the modelling of chalcogenide glass based lanthanide doped fibre lasers for the mid-infra-red (MIR) wavelength range. The particular lanthanide elements considered include dysprosium, praseodymium and terbium. Both classical 3 level lasing systems and cascade lasing systems are considered, and their properties compared. Steady state and pulsed operation of the lasers is considered and the possible application as a seed pump for supercontinuum generation is discussed. Several aspects of numerical methods used specifically for the modelling of MIR fibre lasers are also considered.