Before the 1960s, all anti-Stokes emissions, which were known to exist, involved emission energies in excess of excitation energies by only a few kT. They were linked to thermal population of energy states above excitation states by such an energy amount. It was the well-known case of anti-Stokes emission for the so-called thermal bands or in the Raman effect for the well-known anti-Stokes sidebands. Thermoluminescence, where traps are emptied by excitation energies of the order of kT, also constituted a field of anti-Stokes emission of its own. Superexcitation, i.e., raising an already excited electron to an even higher level by excited-state absorption (ESA), was also known but with very weak emissions. These types of well-known anti-Stokes processes have been reviewed in classical textbooks on luminescence.1 All fluorescence light emitters usually follow the well-known principle of the Stokes law which simply states that excitation photons are at a higher energy than emitted ones or, in other words, that output photon energy is weaker than input photon energy. This, in a sense, is an indirect statement that efficiency cannot be larger than 1. This principle is

Upconversion and Anti-Stokes Processes with f and d Ions in Solids

Material-dependent properties influencing the performance of fiber amplifiers are reviewed together with the available data for Er/sup 3+/. The major glass types potentially useful in this application are considered and compared to silica. The topics addressed include quenching processes and the solubility of rare-earth ions, transition strengths and bandwidths at the 1500-nm gain transition, and the characteristics at the 800-, 980-, and 1480-nm pump bands. Aluminum is shown to be an extremely useful codopant for silica, improving its ability to dissolve rare-earth ions and providing desirable spectroscopic properties for Er/sup 3+/. For some of the attributes considered, other glasses have advantages over Al silica, but only with respect to gain bandwidth and pumping performance at 800 nm is significantly better than expected from other glass compositions. >

Erbium-doped glasses for fiber amplifiers at 1500 nm

Recently, interest in diode laser-pumped solid-state lasers has increased due to their advantages over flashlamp-pumped solid-state lasers. A historical overview is presented of semiconductor diode-pumped solid-state lasers beginning with work in the early 1960s and continuing through recent work on wavelength extension of these devices by laser operation on new transitions. Modeling of these devices by rate equations to obtain expressions for threshold, slope efficiency, and figures of merit is also given. >

Diode laser-pumped solid-state lasers

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) optical microresonators have attracted intense interests in the past decades. The combination of high quality factors (Q) and small mode volumes of modes in WGM resonators significantly enhances the light-matter interactions, making them excellent cavities for achieving low threshold and narrow linewidth lasers. In this Review, the progress in WGM microcavity lasers is summarized, and the laser performance considering resonator geometries and materials as well as lasing mechanisms is discussed. Label-free detection using WGM resonators has emerged as highly sensitive detection schemes. However, the resolution is mainly limited by the cavity Q factor which determines the mode linewidth. Microcavity lasers, due to their narrow laser spectral width, could greatly improve the detection resolution. Some recent developments in sensing using microcavity lasers are discussed.

Whispering gallery microcavity lasers

The theory and application of fiber loop reflectors, fabricated by forming a fiber loop between the output ports of a directional coupler, is described. The reflectivity of the loop is shown to depend upon the coupling characteristics of the coupler and on the degree of birefringence in the fiber loop. Measured loop reflectivities, in terms of wavelength response, coupling ratio, and loop birefringence are shown to agree very well with theory. Two applications of the fiber reflector are briefly discussed; an all fiber laser and a duplex optical communications link using a single light source. >

Fiber loop reflectors

The first demonstration of upconversion pumped lasing at green wavelengths in an Er3+-doped fluorozirconate fibre laser is reported. 15 mW continuous wave emission at a wavelength of 546 nm has been achieved for an absorbed pump power of 300 mW.

Upconversion pumped green lasing in erbium doped fluorozirconate fibre

Using the coupling between a standard single-mode fiber and single higher-order modes in a high-index overlay waveguide, we demonstrate a wavelength-filtering device with a channel-dropping response. Two types of filter are described. One uses a thin overlay waveguide, giving a single tunable dropped band response in the 1.2-1.6-microm wavelength region with rejection greater than 20 dB and an insertion loss of about 0.5 dB. The other uses a thick overlay waveguide and gives a comb-filter response with a dropped channel spacing of 13 nm with 20-dB rejection and an insertion loss of between 1 and 4 dB.

Exposed-core single-mode-fiber channel-dropping filter using a high-index overlay waveguide.

A pair of optical fibres which are to be joined are located with their end portions in coupling elements one of which is transparent to light. The coupling elements are located such that the ends of the fibres are in approximate alignment. Light is transmitted along one fibre so that it is received by the fibre in the transparent coupling element. Light which is not coupled into the core of the fibre is sensed by a sensor and the relative position of the fibres is adjusted until the level of sensed light is a minimum. The sensing of the light is carried out at positions spaced angularly about the waveguide so that an indication of the direction of any misalignment is obtained. The coupling elements are then secured in this position. The adjustment of the fibres can be carried out using a linear translation stage and a microprocessor which controls the stage in accordance with signals from the sensor.

Coupling of dielectric optical waveguides

An optical-fiber Fox–Smith resonator was demonstrated for the first time to our knowledge. It was applied to obtain single-longitudinal-mode operation from an erbium-doped fiber laser. Both the passive performance and the active performance of the device are studied in detail. Good agreement is found between theoretical and experimental results.

Fiber Fox–Smith resonators: application to single-longitudinal-mode operation of fiber lasers

We report for the first time a fibre laser operating beyond the 1.55μm communications window. Using a holmium doped fluoro-zirconate fibre, laser emission occurs from the threelevel 2.08μm transition, and also at 1.38μm via a cascading transition.

Colin A. Millar

Papers

Upconversion pumped green lasing in erbium doped fluorozirconate fibre

Exposed-core single-mode-fiber channel-dropping filter using a high-index overlay waveguide.

Coupling of dielectric optical waveguides

Fiber Fox–Smith resonators: application to single-longitudinal-mode operation of fiber lasers

Lasing at 2.08 mu m and 1.38 mu m in a holmium doped fluoro-zirconate fibre laser