Concentration quenching in an Er-doped phosphate glass for compact optical lasers and amplifiers

In this paper, highly (up to 5.25 mol% Er2O3) Er-doped phosphate bulk glasses were synthesized by conventional melt-quenching method and their physical, thermal and spectroscopic properties are reported. The influence of Er3+ doping concentration on emission spectra and lifetimes was investigated in order to study the concentration quenching effect on luminescence performance and therefore to evaluate the most suitable rare earth content for developing compact fibre laser and optical amplifier operating at 1.55 μm. A radiative lifetime and a quenching concentration equal to τ0 = 7.05 ms and N0 = 9.92 × 10^20 ions/cm3 were respectively calculated by fitting the fluorescence lifetime experimental data with Auzel's limited diffusion model