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Lasing action at around 1:9 m from an ultrafast laser inscribed Tm-doped glass waveguide
F. Fusari,1 R. R. Thomson,2 G. Jose,3 F. M. Bain,1 A. A. Lagatsky,1 N. D. Psaila,2 A. K. Kar,2 A. Jha,3 W. Sibbett,1 and C. T.A. Brown1,*
1

Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, J. F. Allen Physics Research Laboratories, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9SS, Scotland, UK
2

Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, School of Engineering and Physical Science, David Brewster Building, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH14 4AS, UK
3

Institute for Materials Research, School of Process, Environment and Materials Engineering, The University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK *Corresponding author: ctab@standrews.ac.uk Received March 10, 2011; revised March 10, 2011; accepted March 21, 2011; posted March 30, 2011 (Doc. ID 132448); published April 22, 2011

We report optical guiding and laser action at around 1:9 m in a Tm3 -doped fluorogermanate glass waveguide fabricated using ultrafast laser inscription. A monolithic laser cavity was constructed by directly butt coupling dielectric mirrors to each facet of the 6:0 mm long Tm3 -doped waveguide. When the waveguide was pumped by a Ti:sapphire laser tuned to 791 nm, laser oscillation was achieved at around 1:91 m. This waveguide laser exhibited a maximum slope efficiency of 6% and a maximum output power of 32 mW when pumped with 620 mW of incident laser power. 2011 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 140.3390, 140.3580, 230.7380, 130.3120.

It is now well known that focused ultrashort laser pulses of subbandgap radiation can be used to locally modify the structure of dielectric materials. If the refractive index change is appropriately controlled, optical waveguides may be inscribed in the material by translating it in three dimensions through the laser focus [1]. Ultrafast laser inscription (ULI) therefore represents an exceptionally flexible optical waveguide fabrication technology that can be applied to a range of amorphous and crystalline materials. Lasing in and around the 2 m spectral region is of interest for a range of applications, including spectroscopy [2] and medicine [3]. The development of highly compact laser sources remains an important driver for this field and, in particular, the development of lowthreshold lasers. One way of achieving these demanding goals is through the application of a channel waveguide formed in the gain medium. This Letter describes the use of ULI, for the first time to our knowledge, to fabricate a channel waveguide laser for use in the 2 m spectral region. In recent years, the application of ULI to the fabrication of waveguide laser devices has been investigated extensively. To date, ULI-fabricated waveguide lasers have been demonstrated using various substrate materials, including crystalline materials such as Yb-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) [4] and Yb-doped KGdWO4 2 [5], which resulted in laser oscillation at around 1:03 m and 1:036 m, respectively, Nd-doped YAG ceramic [6], which resulted in laser oscillation at 1:06 m, and Yb[7], Nd- [8] and Er-doped [9] glasses, which resulted in laser oscillation at 1.033, 1.062, and 1:5 m, respectively. Generally speaking, ULI-fabricated waveguides exhibit low corecladding refractive index contrasts (n < 1%). As a result, there has been a general assumption that long-wavelength light ( > 1:5 m) will be poorly confined in the waveguide and exhibit high propagation losses due to radiation. We feel that it is for this reason
0146-9592/11/091566-03$15.00/0

that there has been very little work aimed at exploring the long-wavelength applications of ULI waveguides. Indeed, until recently, the longest wavelength that had been definitively demonstrated to have been successfully guided by a ULI-fabricated waveguide was around 1:65 m [10]. It is clear, therefore, that there is an opportunity to explore the limits of what can be achieved using ULI for the fabrication of optical waveguides operating at longer wavelengths. In this Letter, we report, for the first time to our knowledge, the successful guiding of 1:94 m light by a ULI fabricated waveguide by fabricating waveguides in a fluorogermanate glass (Tm3 :GPNG). Furthermore, we also demonstrate the generation of 32 mW of cw lasing at around 1:91 m, with a slope efficiency of 6%, by placing the waveguide in a monolithic laser cavity and pumping it with 620 mW of 791 nm radiation. A sample of Tm3 -doped fluorogermanate glass doped with 2 wt:% of Tm3 was prepared using a melting, quenching, and annealing process described elsewhere [11]. The glass sample was cut to a length of 7 mm and polished to a planeparallel finish. The refractive index of the glass was measured to be 1:75. Waveguides were inscribed in this sample using a custom designed, variable-repetition-rate master oscillator power amplifier ultrafast fiber laser system supplied by Fianium, Ltd. For this investigation, the pulse repetition rate was set to 500 kHz, and the pulse duration was measured to be 350 fs. The central wavelength of the inscription laser radiation was 1:064 m, and the polarization was adjusted to be circular. To inscribe the structures, the pulses were focused to a depth of 200 m inside the sample using a 0.6 NA aspheric lens, and the sample was translated through the focus using computer-controlled xyz air-bearing stages. The waveguide cross section was controlled using the well-known multiscan fabrication technique [12]. Each waveguide was inscribed by translating the substrate backward and forward through
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the laser focus 20 times, with each scan separated by 0:4 m in the axis perpendicular to both the sample translation axis and the laser beam propagation axis. Structures were inscribed using pulse energies ranging from 181 nJ to 258 nJ. For each pulse energy, structures were inscribed using translation speeds of 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, and 1:0 mm:s1 . Following inscription, the sample was polished back by 0:5 mm on each side to expose the waveguide facets, resulting in a final waveguide length of 6:0 mm. Preliminary facet inspection of all structures written was carried out with a VIS camera and a 20 microscope objective. An optical micrograph of the structure inscribed using 222 nJ pulses and a sample translation velocity of 1:0 mm:s1 is presented in Fig. 1, where it can be seen that the lower modified region exhibits a rectangular cross section with dimensions of approximately 9:0 m 18:0 m. For writing energies above 212 nJ, a secondary structure was also evident above the primary inscribed volume. From the power dependence of this additional feature, we believe it is due to self-focusing, as reported previously by Eaton et al. [13]. The passive guiding properties of the inscribed structures were investigated by imaging the sample facet onto a FLIR SC7000 IR camera, while coupling the 1:94 m light generated by a diode laser (COVEGA) into the opposite end of each structure using direct waveguide fiber butt coupling. In this manner, guiding was observed to occur directly inside the laser modified regions. Guiding took place in all written structures, but for the waveguide fabricated using 222 nJ pulses and a sample translation velocity of 1:0 mm:s1 , the laser performance characteristics were best, as reported later. In Fig. 2, a near-field image of the 1:94 m mode guided by the lower modified region of the structure illustrated in Fig. 1 is presented. This region was found to be single mode at 1:94 m, with the guided mode exhibiting 1=e2 mode field diameters of 22:3 m and 19:2 m along the x and z axes in Fig. 2, respectively. The error in the mode field diameter measurements are

Fig. 2. Near-field image of the 1:94 m mode guided by the lower modified structure shown in Fig. 1. The orientation of the mode matches the orientation of the waveguide facet shown in Fig. 1. The plots above and to the right of the image are of the intensity distribution of the mode along the x and z axes, respectively, both of which intersect the mode maxima.

Fig. 1. Transmission mode optical micrograph of the structure inscribed in the Tm3 :GPNG glass using 222 nJ pulses and a translation speed of 1:0 mm:s1 .

estimated to be 0:35 m. To estimate the magnitude of the induced refractive index change, we used a commercial finite element modeling package (Femlab) to model the guided modes of our waveguideassuming that the waveguide exhibits a step index profile with the dimensions reported above. The refractive index contrast in the simulation was then varied until the mode field diameter of the simulated mode matched the measured values reported above. This was achieved using a corecladding refractive index contrast ncore nclad =ncore 0:9 103 . Using this refractive index contrast, the guided modes of the waveguide were modeled using the pump wavelength of 791 nm. The waveguide was found to support five scalar modes, but the fundamental mode was found to exhibit mode field diameters of 10 and 16 m along the x and z axes, respectively. An insertion loss measurement of the waveguide was performed using 1:94 m light, which was directly butt coupled into one end of the waveguide using a Corning SMF-28 fiber. The transmitted light was collected at the opposite end of the waveguide using a multimode fiber (200 m core diameter, NA 0:22), which was also butt coupled to the waveguide facet. Index-matching gel (n 1:44) was used between both fibers and the waveguide facets to reduce Fresnel reflections. The light captured by the multimode fiber was measured by coupling its opposite end to a thermal power meter. Using the power measured when directly coupling the SMF-28 fiber to the multimode fiber as a reference, the insertion loss of the waveguide was measured to be 2:2 dB. To evaluate the contribution to the insertion loss due to coupling loss between the SMF-28 fiber and the waveguide, the 1:94 m mode supported by the SMF-28 fiber was measured and found to be circular with a 1=e2 mode field diameter of 11:2 m. Using the well-known Gaussian field approximation [14] to calculate the coupling loss due to mode mismatch, we attribute a minimum of 1:6 0:2 dB of the measured insertion loss to coupling losses. We also

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Fig. 3. (Color online) Schematic diagram of the experimental setup for the waveguide laser experiments: PB, pumping beam at 791 nm; FL, focusing lens; IM, input mirror; OWG, optimum waveguide; OC, output coupler; PBF, pump blocking filter.

attribute 0:1 dB of the measured insertion loss to ground state absorption at 1:94 m by the Tm3 ions and a further 0:1 dB to Fresnel reflections at the waveguide index-matching-gel interfaces. This leaves a 0:4 0:2 dB (0:67 0:33 dB:cm1 ) contribution to the insertion loss due to waveguide propagation losses. To conduct the waveguide laser experiments, the sample was placed in a monolithic planeplane laser cavity, as shown in Fig. 3. The laser cavity consists of dielectric mirrors that were directly butt coupled against the polished waveguide facets. The input mirror had high transmission (>98%) at the pump wavelength and high reflectivity (>99:99%) in the 18002100 nm range. Four output couplers were used with transmissions of 0.8%, 2.0%, 4.1%, and 10% around 1:95 m. The waveguide shown in Fig. 1 was pumped with a Ti:sapphire laser tuned to 791 nm, which enabled excitation of the 3 F4 lasing level via the well-known cross-relaxation pumping scheme for Tm3 lasers operating at around 2:0 m [15]. Various pump focusing arrangements were investigated to maximize the input pump coupling. It was observed that the optimum lasing was achieved when the pump beam focusing was controlled to produce a pump beam 1=e2 spot size of 10 m in diameter. This spot size is in rough agreement with the expected size of the fundamental mode supported by the waveguide at this wavelengthas reported above. All lasing characteristics reported here were therefore obtained using this pump focusing arrangement. The laser light generated by the waveguide laser was measured by placing a thermal power meter behind a germanium pump blocking filter. Figure 4 shows the measured waveguide laser output power as a function of pump power for the optimum waveguide. As indicated in Fig. 4, lasing was obtained using the 0.8%, 2.0%, and 4.1% output couplers, with resulting slope efficiencies of 3%, 3.2%, and 6%, respectively. (The laser threshold could not be reached with the 10% output coupler.) The minimum laser threshold was measured at an incident pump power of 80 mW with the 0.8% output coupler and a maximum output power of 32 mW at 1:93 m was measured with 620 mW of pumping and a 4.1% output coupler. By tilting the output coupler, the output central wavelength could be tuned from 1890 to 1940 nm. To conclude, the guiding of 1:94 m light in a ULI fabricated optical waveguide has been demonstrated, and the propagation loss was measured to be 0:7 dB:cm1 . We have also observed laser action at around 1:9 m in the same ULI-fabricated waveguide. The waveguide laser emitted a maximum cw output power of 32 mW at 1:930 m with a maximum slope efficiency of 6%.

Fig. 4. (Color online) Waveguide laser output power at 1:93 m as a function of the incident pump power for three different output couplers (OC).

The funding of this work by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through grant EP/G030227/1 and Photon Flow Basic Technology grants EP/D047269/1, EP/D04622X/1, and EP/D048672/1 is gratefully acknowledged as is support from Fianium, Ltd. R. R. Thomson acknowledges support through a Science and Technology Facilities Council advanced fellowship (ST/ H005595/1).
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