AOS
Dependence of the fluorescence lifetime on dopant concentration and pump power in erbium-doped optical fibres.
Thinh B. Nguyen
Optical Technology Research Laboratory
School of Communications and Informatics
Victoria University
PO Box 14428 Melbourne City MC
Victoria 8001 Australia
Email:
Greg W. BAXTER
Optical Technology Research Laboratory
School of Communications and Informatics
Victoria University
PO Box 14428 Melbourne City MC
Victoria 8001 Australia
Peter M. Farrell
Altamar Networks
PO Box 644 Doncaster
Victoria 3108 Australia
Gerard MONNOM
Laboratoire de Physique de la Matiere Condensee-CNRS
Universite de Nice
Parc Valrose, F 06108
Nice, France
Dependence of the fluorescence lifetime with dopant concentration and pump power in erbium-doped optical fibres.
Thinh B. Nguyen1, Greg W. Baxter1, Peter M. Farrell2, Gerard Monnom3
1Optical Technology Research Laboratory, Victoria University
2Altamar Networks, Doncaster VIC. 3LMPC -CNRS, University of Nice, France
It is well known that the dopant concentration affects the lifetime of the 1550 nm fluorescence in erbium-doped optical fibres. High dopant concentrations cause non-radiative energy transfers between neighbouring ions and reduces the population of the 4I13/2 amplifying level. This reduces the lifetime of the level and the efficiency of the erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA). Previous work has also shown that the lifetime of the 4I13/2 energy level is dependent on pump power and reduces with increasing pump. This paper presents a single model that describes the influence of both the dopant concentration and pump power on the lifetime of the 1550 nm fluorescence.
The model is based on upconversion processes between neighbouring ions in the 4I13/2 excited state. The solution to the lifetime of this state is found to have a logarithmic dependence on both the dopant concentration and initial population of the state, which is directly proportional to the pump power.
The modelling and experimental results verify the reduction in fluorescence lifetime with increasing dopant concentration as well as increasing pump power. The reduction in the lifetime is more significant at the high concentration regime above 1025 ions/m3. There is little influence at concentrations below this level.
The results have significance in applications based on fluorescence lifetimes, such as temperature and strain sensing, and in modelling the performance of high concentration devices such as lasers and waveguides.