Characterization of Er^3+ Doped Tellurite Glasses Used in Long Optical Communication

Er³⁺ doped tellurite glasses are promising candidates for potential broadband optical amplier and tunable fiber lasers because of their excellent optical properties. The emission spectrum show that their FWHM around 1.5 ¿m is about 50 nm which is almost twice as broad as the corresponding spectrum in silica. The lifetime of the ⁴I_13/2 metastable state is long enough to make these glasses suitable to be used in optical amplification devices. For the great transmission capacity and efficiency, optical fiber based on Er³⁺ doped tellurite glasses will widely used in the very long optical communication trunks.