Tellurite glasses for 1.3 μm optical amplifiers

Tellurite glasses combine the attributes of a short wavelength at the UV edge, good glass stability, rare earth ion solubility, a slow corrosion rate, the lowest phonon energy spectrum among oxide glass formers, a high refractive index. This makes tellurite glasses extremely attractive as high quantum efficiency host materials for rare earth ions. The signal-gain characteristics of tellurite-based Er³⁺ doped fiber amplifiers were clarified based on spectroscopic properties and signal-gain measurements. The Judd-Ofelt parameters were computed from the intensities of various absorption bands of Pr³⁺ doped tellurite glasses and the Judd-Ofelt theory was applied to characterize the photoluminescence spectra of these glasses.