Progress on Novel Mid-Infrared Glass Fibers and Relative Lasers

Mid-infrared fiber lasers have important applications in fundamental researches, optical communications, biomedicine, environmental monitoring, and national defense security. Currently, researchers are mainly focused on two main mid-infrared fiber lasers, including supercontinuum (SC) lasers and rare-earth-ions-doped fiber lasers. For the application requirements, the authors developed a fluorotellurite glass fiber with relatively good stability and high damage threshold. By using the fluorotellurite glass fibers as the nonlinear media, broadband SC laser source from 0.6 to 5.4 tum was obtained in the experiments. Moreover, SC light source with an average power of about 20 W was also obtained, and the spectral range covered 1-4 fim wavelength. The authors fabricated Ho3+-doped A1F3 based glass fibers with relatively good water resistance. By using the Ho3+-doped A1F3 based glass fibers as gain media, the authors obtained about 2868 nm lasers. The authors also fabricated Ho3""-doped I11F3 based glass fibers with relatively low phonon energies. By using the Ho3+ doped I11F3 based glass fibers as gain media, the authors obtained about 2875 nm lasers. This paper mainly focuses 011 introducing the current progress on mid-infrared glass fibers, including the material characteristics of fluorotellurite glass fibers, AIF3 based glass fibers, InFa based glass fibers, and relative lasers.