Design of mid-IR microstructured fiber light source based on dysprosium doped chalcogenide glass

The paper deals with the design of a medium infrared (Mid-IR) light source based on a microstructured fiber made of dysprosium doped chalcogenide glass, Dy3+:Ga5Ge20Sb10S65. It is constituted by the cascade of a laser cavity and an optical amplifier which could be fabricated in the same microstructured fiber. In order to obtain realistic results, the simulation is performed by taking into account the spectroscopic parameters directly measured on preliminary samples of Dy3+:Ga5Ge20Sb10S65 glasses. The main objective is to investigate the feasibility of optical beam emission close to 4.4 μm wavelength. An output power of 547.3 mW with an input pump power of 3 W is calculated for an optical fiber about 1.5 m long and with a dopant concentration close to 6 × 1025 ions/m3. This result indicates that the designed source configuration is feasible for medium infrared light generation and it could find application in optical free propagation link, optical remote sensing and biomedicine.