Polarization-insensitive planar glass waveguide amplifiers by silver ion exchange

Summary form only given. Erbium-doped planar waveguide amplifiers have recently received attention for end-user lossless splitter applications in telecommunication networks. Integration of these amplifiers with splitters offers robust and compact devices at lower packaging cost. In this research, we focus on waveguide amplifiers suitable for these applications. For low-cost devices, pump laser light for the amplifier should be delivered remotely with standard single-mode fiber. Therefore, a pump wavelength of 1.48 /spl mu/m is preferred. The gain insensitivity of amplifiers to the polarization states of pump and signal is also very important. For this reason, we used silver-ion-exchange technique in waveguide fabrication, which results in low birefringent waveguides. Two different erbium-doped glasses, a commercial phosphate laser glass (Kigre Q89), and borosilicate glass (BGG31) developed for silver ion exchange, were used as substrates. The small signal gain of these waveguides was measured by a pump and probe technique using a pump wavelength of 1.48 /spl mu/m from a Cr:YAG laser.