Characterization of new erbium-doped tellurite glasses and fibers

Tellurite glasses are promising candidates for optical fiber laser and amplifier applications because of their excellent optical and chemical properties. The emission spectrum from erbium in tellurite glasses is almost twice as broad as the corresponding spectrum in silica. In this presentation, we report the results of a two-prong investigation of new tellurite glasses: a Raman study that provides detail information on the microscopic structure of these glasses, and a study of the erbium emission in fibers fabricated from these glasses. Specifically, we report on the emission from fibers of different lengths and for different pumping schemes.