Abstract
We present a multimode longitudinal pumping scheme for integrated
rare-earth-doped waveguide amplifiers which allows an efficient use of low
cost multimode pump sources. The scheme is based on evanescent pump light
coupling from a multimode low loss waveguide to a single mode active core.
Multimode pump light is gradually coupled to the active waveguide, which is
single mode at the signal wavelengths, providing population inversion along
the whole amplifier length and overcoming the main limitation of conventional
single mode pump butt-coupling in case of strongly absorbing active materials.
We propose this pumping scheme at 477 nm for Si-nanocluster sensitized Erbium
doped waveguide amplifiers, in which conventional butt-coupling is inefficient
due to the strong pump absorption by the Si-nanoclusters,
and top pumping by LED arrays is limited by the low pump intensity values
achievable within the active region. The coupling between the multimode waveguide
and the active core has been numerically studied for slab waveguide structures
using a 2-D split-step finite element method.
© 2008 IEEE
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