High gain wavelength selective amplification and cavity ring down spectroscopy in a fluoride glass erbium doped microsphere

Alphonse Rasoloniaina (1) , Stephane Trebaol (1, 2) , Vincent Huet (1) , Elodie Le Cren (1) , Giancarlo Nunzi Conti (3) , Hélène Serier-Brault (4) , Michel Mortier (5) , Yannick Dumeige (1) , Patrice Féron (1)

1 FOTON - Fonctions Optiques pour les Technologies de l'informatiON
2 ICMP - Institute of Condensed Matter Physics
3 IFAC - Istituto di Fisica Applicata "Nello Carrara"
4 IMN - Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel
5 LCMCP (site ENSCP) - Laboratoire de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Paris (site ENSCP)

We experimentally demonstrate a compact optical amplifier consisting of a rare-earth-doped whispering-gallery-mode microsphere coupled via a tapered fiber. A gain up to 20 dB is reported in an erbium-doped fluoride glass microsphere 135 µm in diameter. Below the amplification regime, the optical gain is used to compensate for unavoidable losses due to surface contamination or scattering. Quality factor as high as 2 × 10^9 has been measured by analyzing the transient response of the microsphere excited by a dynamically shifted frequency input signal.

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Alphonse Rasoloniaina, Stephane Trebaol, Vincent Huet, Elodie Le Cren, Giancarlo Nunzi Conti, et al.. High gain wavelength selective amplification and cavity ring down spectroscopy in a fluoride glass erbium doped microsphere. Optics Letters, 2012, 37 (22), pp.4735. ⟨10.1364/OL.37.004735⟩. ⟨hal-00828342⟩