A strategy for preparing broadband polymer based optical waveguide amplifiers:doping low crystal field symmetric nanocrystals in polymer matrix as gain media
Optical waveguide amplifiers are essential de-vices in integrated optical systems,with their gain bandwidths directly influencing the operating wavelengths of optical cir-cuits.Previous Er3+-doped polymer optical waveguide ampli-fiers have been limited to amplifying signals within the C-band.To achieve broadband polymer optical waveguide amplification,we propose the use of nanocrystals with low crystal field symmetry to extend the working bandwidth.Our approach utilizes LiYF4∶Yb,Er nanoparticles embedded in poly(methyl methacrylate)as the gain medium,enabling sig-nal amplification from most of the S-band to the whole(C+L)band.The low crystal field symmetry of the LiYF4 host sig-nificantly splits the 4I13/2 and 4I15/2 levels of Er3+ions owing to the crystal field effect,facilitating broadband down-conver-sion luminescence under 980-nm excitation.Furthermore,a fluorescence kinetic analysis confirms that the broadband lu-minescence of Er3+arises from significant energy-level split-ting caused by the crystal field effect.Under 980-nm excitation,the amplifiers exhibited relative gains of approxi-mately 12.6 dB at 1535 nm,7.4 dB at 1480 nm,and 3.7 dB at 1610 nm.The Er3+-doped broadband polymer optical wave-guide amplifier was successfully prepared.
polymer optical waveguide amplifierscrystal field effectcrystal field symmetryenergy level splitting
崔皓、姜子炫、杨育、陶思亮、吴双、尹晶、王菲、秦冠仕、孟凡超、赵丹、秦伟平
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State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics,College of Electronic Science & Engineering,Jilin University,Changchun 130012,China
polymer optical waveguide amplifiers crystal field effect crystal field symmetry energy level splitting