https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04841-1
Regular Article
Short review and prospective: chalcogenide glass mid-infrared fibre lasers
1
Mid-Infrared Photonics Group, George Green Institute for Electromagnetics’ Research, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, Nottingham, UK
2
School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, NG11 8NS, Nottingham, UK
3
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Ioannina, 45110, Ioannina, Greece
4
Department of Telecommunications and Teleinformatics, Faculty of Electronics, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wybrzeze, Wyspianskiego 27, 50-370, Wrocław, Poland
a
angela.seddon@nottingham.ac.uk
Received:
2
November
2023
Accepted:
26
December
2023
Published online:
8
February
2024
Rare-earth ion doped, silica glass, optical fibre amplifiers have transformed the world by enabling high speed communications and the Internet. Fibre lasers, based on rare-earth ion doped silica glass optical fibres, achieve high optical powers and are exploited in machining, sensing and medical surgery. However, the chemical structure of silica glass fibres limits the wavelength of laser operation to < 2.5 µm, which excludes the mid-infrared longer wavelength range of 3–50 µm. Rare-earth ion doping of fluoride glasses enables manufacture of fibre lasers up to a limiting 3.92 µm wavelength, but the fluoride glass chemical structure again prevents operation at longer wavelengths. Optical fibre lasers that are constructed from different rare-earth ion doped chalcogenide glass fibres will potentially operate across the 4–10 µm wavelength range, where suitable high-power lasers currently do not exist. We present a short review here of our recent work in achieving first time, continuous wave, mid-infrared fibre lasing beyond 5 μm wavelength in Ce3+-doped selenide chalcogenide fibre. We place this disruptive breakthrough into the wider fibre laser context, and also present the unprecedented advances in new cross-sector applications that will be enabled by mid-infrared fibre lasers in the 4–10 µm wavelength range. To surpass the few mW power output of the Ce3+-doped chalcogenide glass fibre lasing achieved to date, the glass quality of the doped chalcogenide fibres must now be improved, similar to the challenges originally facing the first glass fibre lasers based on silica.
© The Author(s) 2024
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