SBIR-STTR Award

The goal of this project is to develop new high performance Er/Yb-codoped phosphate glass cladded fibers for fabrication of miniature high efficiency lasers and amplifiers for 1.54 ?m optical communications systems. Kigre's highly developed MM-1, MM-2, and QX/Er Er/Yb-codoped phosphate glasses are well suited for use as 1.54 ?m oscillator amplifier materials. This Phase I effort will focus on the design, fabrication, and initial evaluation of a novel single mode clad fiber capable of producing high gain amplification (~0.5 dB/mm) at 1.54 ?m in a short (~3-4cm) length.

Keywords:
Rare-Earth-Doped Glasses, Phosphate Laser Glasses, Optical Communications, Integrated Optics, Fiber

Kigre's Phase I fiber amplifier development effort demonstrated 10dB of internal gain at 1.54um from 2.2 cm long section of MM-2 erbium ytterbium phosphate fiber amplifier pumped at 980nm. 26dB of gain was also produced from a 8.8com long section of this same fiber pumped at 1480nm. Mode field image testing of a fiber show this MM-2 fiber to be perfect 1.54um single mode containment match to standard Corning SMF-28 communications transmission fiber. In Phase II we propose the development and optimization of new fiber amplifiers devices. Standard Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) produced with silicate and fluoride based materials are large, inefficient, cumbersome, and cost Tens of thousands of dollars. In contrast, MM-2 phosphate glass amplifiers allow for the production of small, efficient, integrated, inexpensive, high gain amplifier devices. Optical amplifier properties are increasing in their importance as we begin the construction of the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) communications networks. EDFAs manufactured from Kigre's MM-2 phosphate glass offers the industry high gain and short length properties that allow optical network components to be designed with the components to be designed with compact sizes, low costs, and superior performance. Lasers may now provide fiber-optic communications transmission data rates in the 1-40Gb/sec range. Unlike long-haul fiber optic licks, emerging metropolitan networks rarely have long fiber runs that require conventional EDFAs. Their relatively complex architectures require optical components to branch, route and switch lightpaths. To overcome the losses caused by these components, a miniature, high gain, lower cost optical amplifier component is required. A key to providing technology for FTTH and FTTC "unlimited" data rate transmission is the use of efficient, high performance, inexpensive laser materials such as erbium doped phosphate glass. Areas that would benefit from this technology include telcom, military, medical, industrial, and entertainment.

Keywords:
Fiber Amplifier, Lossless Splitter, Optical Amplifier, Rare Earth Doped Phosphate Glass, Fiberoptic