SPECTROSCOPY AND QUANTUM EFFICIENCY OF HALIDE-MODIFIED GALLIUM-LANTHANUM SULFIDE GLASSES DOPED WITH PRASEODYMIUM

The production of competitive fibre amplifiers in the 1.3 mu m region requires both good quantum efficiency in the lasing ion and the capabi lity to produce low-loss fibers. Alkali metal halide substituted galli um lanthanum sulphide (GLS) doped with Pr3+ may provide a route to bot h. We describe measurements of the optical spectroscopy and radiative quantum efficiency (RQE) of Pr3+ emission at 1.3 mu m from the (1)G(4) -H-3(5) transition in GLS glass containing CsCl, CsI, and RbCl. The re sults indicate that CsCl-containing GLS glasses, which have better the rmal and glass-forming properties than pure CLS, can show quantum effi ciencies of up to similar to 80% of that of pure GLS, and thus are goo d candidates for 1.3 mu m fiber amplifiers. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.