Measurement of photodarkening resistance in heavily Yb3+-doped silica and silicate fibers

Abstract

We report the measurements of photodarkening in single-mode heavily Yb3+ doped silica and silicate fibers. Our data shows that under strong pumping conditions, the silicate fiber allows 13 times greater Yb3+ concentrations than the most photodarkening-resistant silica fibers to date without the onset of photodarkening at 635 nm.