Spectroscopic properties of Yb3+ in heavy metal contained fluorophosphate glasses

A new series of 20Bi(PO3)(3)-10Sr(PO3)(2)-35BaF(2)-35MgF(2) doped with Yb3+ is introduced for fiber and waveguide laser applications. The stimulated emission cross-section sigma(emi), which was found to be 1.37 pm(2) at the lasing wavelength of 996 nm, is the highest one among fluorophosphate glasses. It has been found that an extremely high gain coefficient of G = 1.65 ms pm(4) and high quantum efficiency of eta = 93% for 1 wt.% Yb2O3 doped systems. The various concentration effects on laser performance properties including minimum pumping intensity I-min, the minimum fraction of excited ions beta(min) and the saturation pumping intensity I-sat are analyzed as a function of Yb2O3 concentration. Those results obtained in current system had advantage over some fluorophosphate glasses reported. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.