Ce3+-doped chalcogenide glass fibre for laser beyond 4 microns wavelength: Glass material-integrity

Abstract

The 4-μm wavelength barrier encountered for mid-infrared fibre lasing based on heavy metal fluoride glasses has been overcome. We reported, in 2021, the first continuous wave, mid-infrared fibre laser operating beyond 4 μm at room temperature in a fibre with a Ce³⁺-doped selenide-chalcogenide core. Defects, such as crystallites in the core glass, could cause unwanted light-scattering, diminishing fibre laser efficiency. It is important to identify such optical loss mechanisms and eradicate them. Here, we report on investigating the material nano-structure of a chalcogenide-glass lasing fibre which exhibits 7 mW laser power output; the fibre has a Ce³⁺-doped core (8.5 μm diameter), concentrically surrounded by an inner- and outer-cladding, where both cladding-glasses are nominally the same composition. High resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron diffraction show that the core, inner-cladding and outer-cladding of the lasing fibre are internally nano-crystallite-free and amorphous. However, the external outer surface of the last 10 m of fibre drawn, of the total 100 m, contains monoclinic GeSe₂ crystallites adjacent to discrete, small (<0.5 mm) wrinkled defects. The final length of fibre is drawn from the final part of the glass fibreoptic preform. The glass preform has as its outermost component an extruded chalcogenide glass tube. It is the last part of the tube which spends the longest time at high temperature inside the extruder during tube manufacture, encouraging heterogeneous nucleation at the tube outer-surface in contact with the extruder. These heterogeneous nuclei subsequently nucleate crystal growth during fibre-drawing in the outermost fibre surface.