THE EFFECT OF PAIR-INDUCED ENERGY-TRANSFER ON THE PERFORMANCE OF SILICA WAVE-GUIDE AMPLIFIERS WITH HIGH ER3+/YB3+ CONCENTRATIONS

High-concentration Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped silica waveguide amplifiers are numerically analyzed, With optimized rare-earth concentrations the effect of Er3+/Er3+ ion-pairs can be neglected and each Er3+ ion be assumed to be paired only to the surrounding Yb3+ ions, The rate-equations model includes uniform upconversion mechanisms from I-4(13/2) and I-4(11/2) erbium levels and an Yb3+ to Er3+ pair-induced energy transfer process. Numerical results demonstrate the possibility of fabricating short- and high-gain integrated optical amplifiers; it is shown that net gain as high as 3 dB/cm can be obtained.