Highly efficient cascaded amplification using Pr3+-doped mid-infrared chalcogenide fiber amplifiers

摘要

We computationally investigate cascaded amplification in a three-level mid-infrared (IR) Pr3+-doped chalcogenide fiber amplifier. The overlap of the cross-sections in the transitions H-3(6) -> H-3(5) and H-3(5) -> H-3(4) enable both transitions to simultaneously amplify a single wavelength in the range between 4.25 mu m and 4.55 mu m. High gain and low noise are achieved simultaneously if the signal is at 4.5 mu m. We show that 45% of pump power that is injected at 2 mu m can be shifted to 4.5 mu m. The efficiency of using a mid-IR fiber amplifier is higher than what can be achieved by using mid-IR supercontinuum generation, which has been estimated at 25%. This mid-IR fiber amplifier can be used in conjunction with quantum cascade lasers to obtain a tunable, high-power mid-IR source. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America