COOPERATIVE UP-CONVERSION IN ERBIUM-IMPLANTED SODA-LIME SILICATE GLASS OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES

Soda-Lime silicate glass has been locally doped with 0.2-at. % erbium by 3.0- and 5.0-MeV ion implantation. Single-mode fiber-compatible opt ical waveguides were then fabricated by use of Na+ <-> K+ ion exchange . Characteristic photoluminescence (PL) of Er3+ centered at 1.54 mu m is observed on excitation at 1.48 mu m. For low pump intensity the PL decay is nearly single exponential with a lifetime of 7.2 ms. At high intensity it becomes nonexponential as a result of cooperative upconve rsion, an interaction between excited Er ions. Self-consistent modelin g of the PL intensity and decay data yields an upconversion coefficien t of 3.2 +/- 0.8 x 10(-24) m(3)/s. The effect of upconversion on optic al gain is shown and discussed. An extrapolation of measured optical g ain shows that 1 dB/cm of net gain is possible in the present Er-impla nted soda-lime glass.