Neodymium-doped Phosphate Glass Waveguide Lasers

Neodymium doped glasses were important optics materials, which had long fluorescence lifetime. It was easy to accumulate high energy levels ions. The glasses of optical uniformity and large dimension could be fabricated. As laser materials, Neodymium doped glasses had important application in Inertial Confined Fusion, high-power laser amplifiers, waveguide laser, medium-sized and pint-size energy parts of an apparatus and optical fiber communication.The general development of solid-state laser was summarized. The development and study of neodymium doped glass and laser were summarized.The characteristics of phosphate glasses materials were summarized. The spectroscopic characteristics neodymium doped phosphate glasses were introduced. And the influence factors of spectroscopic characteristics also given. Several factors in influencing the performances of Nd3+ doped phosphate glasses waveguide laser were introduced. Ignored the amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) and excited state absorption (ESA), rate equations and propagations for Nd3+ doped phosphate glasses waveguide laser were analyzed by overlap and Runge-Kutta algorithm. Propagation characteristic of signal light in the waveguide was analyzed too. Effects of different Nd3+ doped concentration, propagation loss and waveguide length for output power of laser were studied. Influence of overlap factors for output power also was studied. Meanwhile the relation ship of threshold and Nd3+ concentration was founded. At a given Nd3+ concentration and the pump power, the optimal length was obtained. These studies were useful to design and practically manufacture waveguide lasers.The theory of finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) was introduced. The mode fields of planar and strip waveguides were analyzed. The process and some considerable questions were given. According to waveguide mode theory, the mode filed of different thickness planar waveguides and strip waveguides have been simulated. Considering the different waveguide configurations, pump form, pump coupling and reflectors of resonator, the framework of the waveguide laser has been devised. Used thermal ion-exchange technology, the planar waveguides and channel waveguides were fabricated in the neodymium doped glasses. The mode refractive index of the 632.8nm wavelength laser in the ion-exchange planar waveguide was calculated by m line technology. According to experiment, the curve of index profile of planar waveguide was drawn by WKB method.