New Rare-Earth-Doped Glasses for Planar Waveguide Lasers & Amplifiers

This STTR Phase II project continues the development of a new glass (designated MM-i) for ion-exchange glass waveguides and amplifiers used in l.55 um optical communication systems. There is excellent commercial potential for these glass materials and the waveguide lasers (lossless splitters) and optical amplifiers that may be fabricated from them. To date, development efforts in the communications industry have been primarily restricted to Silicate and Fluoride materials. The optical amplifier and "splitter" combinations produced with these materials are large, inefficient, cumbersome, and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Phosphate glass materials readily produce multiple wavelength outputs without the limitations of gain, stark levels, chemical durability, and up- conversion noise exhibited by the Fluoride and Silicate optical materials. This is important in the future fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the-curb (FTTC) communications networks. The future belongs to inexpensive miniature optical circuits or integrated monolithic "lossless" (optical amplifier) splitters and WDM components manufactured from phosphate glass. Designs based upon phosphate glass will result in optical network components with compact sizes, low costs, and better performance.