van Jwm Uffelen

Net optical gain at 1.53 mu m in Er-doped Al2O3 waveguides on silicon

A 4 cm long Er‐doped Al2O3 spiral waveguide amplifier was fabricated on a Si substrate, and integrated with wavelength division multiplexers within a total area of 15 mm2. When pumped with 9 mW 1.48 μm light from a laser diode, the amplifier shows 2.3 dB net optical gain at 1.53 μm. The gain threshold was 3 mW. The amplifier was doped with Er by ion implantation to a concentration of 2.7×1020 cm−3. The data agree well with calculations based on a model which includes the effects of cooperative upconversion and excited state absorption. For an optimized amplifier, net optical gain of 20 dB is predicted.

Photoluminescence characterization of Er-implanted Al2O3 films

Al2O3 films on oxidized Si substrates were implanted with 800 keV Er ions to peak concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 1 at. %. The samples show relatively broad photoluminescence spectra centered at λ=1.533 μm, corresponding to intra‐4f transitions in Er3+. At an Er peak concentration of 0.23 at. %, post‐implantation thermal annealing up to 950 °C increases the photoluminescence intensity by a factor 40. This is a result of defect annealing, which increases the luminescence lifetime from 1 to 7 ms, as well as an increase in the Er3+ active fraction. High Er concentrations are achieved with only moderate concentration quenching effects.

Upconversion in Er-implanted Al2O3 waveguides

When pumped with a 1.48 μm laser diode, Er‐implanted Al2O3 ridge waveguides emit a broad spectrum consisting of several distinct peaks having wavelengths ranging from the midinfrared (1.53 μm) to the visible (520 nm). In order to explain these observations, three different upconversion mechanisms are considered: cooperative upconversion, excited state absorption, and pair‐induced quenching. It is found that for samples with a high Er concentration (1.4 at. %), cooperative upconversion completely dominates the deexcitation of the Er3+ ions. For a much lower concentration (0.12 at. %), the influence of cooperative upconversion is strongly reduced, and another upconversion effect becomes apparent: excited state absorption. These conclusions are based on measurements of the luminescence emission versus pump intensity, and also on measured luminescence decay curves. The upconversion coefficient is found to be (4±1)×10−18 cm3/s; the excited state absorption cross section is (0.9±0.3)×10−21 cm2. It is shown that...

Direct imaging of optical interference in erbium-doped Al2O3 waveguides

Interference of 1.48-microm light in multimode interference waveguides is made visible by imaging green and infrared upconversion luminescence from Er(3+) ions dispersed in the waveguide. A two-dimensional mode density image can be derived from the data and agrees well with mode calculations for this structure. This new technique provides an interesting tool for the study of optical mode distributions in complicated waveguide structures and photonic band-gap materials.

A long InGaAsP/InP waveguide section with small dimensions

A spirally folded InGaAsP/InP ridge-type waveguide with 12.4 mm length, corresponding to 4-cm free-space length, on a device area of 1 mm*1 mm, was realized. Insertion loss was measured to be 4 dB for TE-polarization and 4.5 dB for TM-polarization, most of which is caused by normal propagation loss (2 dB/cm for straight waveguides). Excess bending loss is estimated to be 1.5 dB for TE and 2 dB for TM-polarization.<<ETX>>