Pumping planar waveguide amplifiers using a coupled waveguide system

Author

Slooff, L.H. ; Kik, P.G. ; Tip, A. ; Polman, A.

Author_Institution

FOM Inst. for Atomic & Molecular Phys., Amsterdam, Netherlands

Volume

19

Issue

11

fYear

2001

fDate

11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1740

Lastpage

1744

Abstract

A novel scheme is presented that can be used to efficiently pump optical waveguide amplifiers. It is based on the coupling between two adjacent waveguides, where pump light is gradually coupled from a nonabsorbing pump waveguide into the amplifier waveguide. The coupling between the waveguides in such a configuration is calculated using an improved coupled mode theory (CMT). The proposed distributed coupling scheme can enhance the optical gain in systems that exhibit a reduced pumping efficiency at high pump power. A numerical example is given for a sensitized neodymium-doped polymer waveguide amplifier, in which the optical gain increases from 0.005 dB to 1.6 dB by changing from conventional butt-coupling to distributed coupling

Keywords

coupled mode analysis; laser theory; neodymium; optical couplers; optical planar waveguides; optical pumping; optical waveguide theory; solid lasers; waveguide lasers; 0.005 to 1.6 dB; Nd-doped polymer waveguide laser amplifier; adjacent waveguide coupling; amplifier waveguide; butt-coupling; coupled mode theory; distributed coupling; distributed coupling scheme; high pump power; nonabsorbing pump waveguide; numerical example; optical gain; planar optical waveguide laser amplifier pumping; pump light; reduced pumping efficiency; Optical amplifiers; Optical coupling; Optical planar waveguides; Optical polymers; Optical pumping; Optical sensors; Optical waveguide theory; Optical waveguides; Planar waveguides; Stimulated emission;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/50.964075

Filename

964075