Gain Saturation and Output Characteristics of Index-Antiguided Planar Waveguide Amplifiers With Homogeneous Broadening

Author

Wang, Chaofan ; Her, Tsing-Hua ; Zhao, Lei ; Ao, Xianyu ; Casperson, Lee W. ; Lai, Chih-Hsien ; Chang, Hung-chun

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys. & Opt. Sci., Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), Charlotte, NC, USA

Volume

29

Issue

13

fYear

2011

fDate

7/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1958

Lastpage

1964

Abstract

We investigate numerically and analytically the propagation characteristics of gain-guided modes in index-antiguided planar waveguides. We show that the gain-guided mode has modal confinement proportional to the modal gain, and single-transverse mode propagation is very robust in such waveguides. The power evolution of the fundamental mode can be described analytically with very good accuracy. Limiting power and optimum length of the waveguide amplifiers can also be obtained analytically.

Keywords

amplifiers; light propagation; optical planar waveguides; spectral line broadening; fundamental mode; gain saturation; gain-guided modes; homogeneous broadening; index-antiguided planar waveguide amplifiers; limiting power; modal confinement; modal gain; single-transverse mode propagation; Equations; Indexes; Limiting; Optical amplifiers; Optical saturation; Optical waveguides; Planar waveguides; Optical amplifiers; optical propagation; optical saturation; optical waveguides; solid lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2011.2153822

Filename

5765645