Compact cladding-pumped planar waveguide amplifier and fabrication method
US6640040B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Mar 15, 2002 |
| Grant date | Oct 28, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Mar 15, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01S5/2036
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A low-cost, high performance cladding-pumped planar waveguide amplifier and fabrication method, for deployment in metro and access networks. The waveguide amplifier has a compact monolithic slab architecture preferably formed by first sandwich bonding an erbium-doped core glass slab between two cladding glass slabs to form a multi-layer planar construction, and then slicing the construction into multiple unit constructions. Using lithographic techniques, a silver stripe is deposited and formed at a top or bottom surface of each unit construction and over a cross section of the bonds. By heating the unit construction in an oven and applying an electric field, the silver stripe is then ion diffused to increase the refractive indices of the core and cladding regions, with the diffusion region of the core forming a single mode waveguide, and the silver diffusion cladding region forming a second larger waveguide amenable to cladding pumping with broad area diodes.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.