Broadband high-gain Tm3+/Ho3+ co-doped germanate glass multimaterial fiber for fiber lasers above 2 µm

Abstract

High-gain Tm³⁺/Ho³⁺ co-doped optical fibers are urgently desired for high-repetition-rate mode-locked fiber lasers at >2 µm. Here, Tm³⁺/Ho³⁺ co-doped germanate glass with low hydroxyl (OH^-) content was prepared by the conventional melt-quenching method combined with the reaction atmosphere procedure (RAP) dehydration technique. The doping concentrations of Tm₂O₃ and Ho₂O₃ are 2.5 mol.% (7.1 wt.%) and 0.25 mol.% (0.7 wt.%), respectively. Thanks to the high Tm³⁺ doping (7.1 wt.%) and low energy transfer efficiency (19.8%) between Tm³⁺ and Ho³⁺ ions, it enables achieving broadband and high-gain performance in the 2 µm region. Then a silicate-clad Tm³⁺/Ho³⁺ co-doped germanate core multimaterial fiber was successfully drawn by using the rod-in-tube method, which has a broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) with a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of 247.8 nm at 2 µm. What is more, this new fiber has a high gain per unit length of 4.52 dB/cm at 1.95 µm. Finally, an all-fiber-integrated passively mode-locked fiber laser was built by using this broadband high-gain fiber. The mode-locked pulses operate at 2068.05 nm, and the fundamental repetition rate is up to 4.329 GHz. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest fundamental repetition rate for the all-fiber passively mode-locked fiber laser above 2 µm. These results suggest that the as-drawn multimaterial fibers with broadband high-gain characteristics are promising for high-repetition-rate ultrafast fiber lasers.