QUENCHING OF NEODYMIUM FLUORESCENCE BY MOLECULAR-HYDROGEN

We show that the hydrogen-loading technique used to enhance a fiber's ultraviolet photosensitivity for writing Bragg gratings can lead to qu enching of the lasing ion's fluorescence. The neodymium fluorescence a nd radiative lifetimes are measured for the untreated fiber, the hydro gen-loaded fiber, and the postannealed fiber. We show that postanneali ng can be used to remove the unreacted hydrogen molecules from the fib er laser and restore the radiative lifetime to near that of its origin al value.