Lanthanide-based luminescent hybrid materials.

Erbium doped materials are of great interest in thin film integrated optoelectronic technology, due to their Er3+ intra-4f emission at 1.54 μm, a standard telecommunication wavelength. Er-doped dielectric thin films can be used to fabricate planar optical amplifiers or lasers that can be integrated with other devices on the same chip. Semiconductors, such as silicon, can also be doped with erbium. In this case the Er may be excited through optically or electrically generated charge carriers. Er-doped Si light-emitting diodes may find applications in Si-based optoelectronic circuits. In this article, the synthesis, characterization, and application of several different Er-doped thin film photonic materials is described. It focuses on oxide glasses (pure SiO2, phosphosilicate, borosilicate, and soda-lime glasses), ceramic thin films (Al2O3, Y2O3, LiNbO3), and amorphous and crystalline silicon, all doped with Er by ion implantation. MeV ion implantation is a technique that is ideally suited to dope these materials with Er as the ion range corresponds to the typical micron dimensions of these optical materials. The role of implantation defects, the effect of annealing, concentration dependent effects, and optical activation are discussed and compared for the various materials.

Erbium implanted thin film photonic materials

The site isolation of lanthanide cations (Er3+, Tb3+, and Eu3+) has been achieved through the self-assembly of three convergent polyether dendrons, each with a carboxylate anion focal point, around the central trivalent cation. Evidence for the self-assembly of the dendritic complexes can be obtained by a variety of spectroscopic and other analytical means both in solution and in the solid state. The luminescence properties of these new dendrimers measured both in solution and in the bulk show a dependence of luminescence activity on the size of the dendritic shell. The observed enhancement in luminescence properties can be attributed both to a large antenna effect, involving the nonconjugated phenyl benzyl ether dendrimer framework, and to a shell effect that results from the effective site isolation of each lanthanide cation within a dendritic sphere, preventing their mutual interaction and decreasing their rate of self-quenching. The site isolation afforded by self-assembly and the antenna effect provi...

Self-Assembled Lanthanide-Cored Dendrimer Complexes: Enhancement of the Luminescence Properties of Lanthanide Ions through Site-Isolation and Antenna Effects

Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have emerged as important components in a variety of lightwave applications. Their unique filtering properties and versatility as in-fiber devices is illustrated by their use in wavelength-stabilized lasers, fiber lasers, remotely pump amplifiers. Raman amplifiers, phase conjugators, wavelength converters, passive optical networks, wavelength division multiplexers (WDMs) demultiplexers, add/drop multiplexers, dispersion compensators, and gain equalizers.

Lightwave applications of fiber Bragg gratings

Optical waveguide amplifiers based on polymer materials offer a low-cost alternative for inorganic waveguide amplifiers. Due to the fact that their refractive index is similar to that of standard optical fibers, they can be easily coupled to existing fibers with low coupling losses. Doping the polymer with rare-earth ions that yield optical gain is not straightforward, as the rare-earth salts are poorly soluble in the polymer matrix. This review article focuses on two different approaches to dope a polymer waveguide with rare-earth ions. The first approach is based on organic cage-like complexes that encapsulate the rare-earth ion and are designed to provide coordination sites to bind the rare-earth ion and to shield it from the surrounding matrix. These complexes also offer the possibility of attaching a highly absorbing antenna group, which increases the pump efficiency significantly. The second approach to fabricate rare-earth doped polymer waveguides is obtained by combining the excellent properties of SiO2 as a host for rare-earth ions with the easy processing of polymers. This is done by doping polymers with Er-doped silica colloidal spheres.

Rare-earth doped polymers for planar optical amplifiers

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. >

W.J. Miniscalco

Papers

Erbium-doped glasses for fiber amplifiers at 1500 nm