Super-broadband near-infrared photoluminescence from thulium, bismuth, and thulium-bismuth doped sodium germanium gallate glasses and waveguides

The present work investigates the NIR luminescence from Tm, Bi singly doped and Tm-Bi codoped sodium-germanium-gallate glasses under argon laser and laser diodes excitations. Superbroadband emissions in the wavelength region of 1.0-1.7 μm were obtained from Tm-Bi codoping configuration under 793 nm excitation. The addition of Bi can not only enhance the Tm emission but also improve the superbroadband luminescence in the entire low loss window through efficient energy transfer from active Bi to Tm. Planar waveguide was fabricated using ion exchange process. Our results suggest that this glass system is promising for superbroadband luminescence sources and optical waveguide amplifiers operating at the entire telecommunication transmission window.