Erbium-doped waveguide devices for WDM applications

Abstract

Considerable advances have been made in the study of Er-doped waveguides for telecommunications application. These devices have been developed to allow on-chip integration between active and passive components, and differ from Er-doped fiber amplifiers in their much smaller size. To be of any use, these devices must provide gains of the order of a few dB/cm, which can be achieved with Er concentrations of about 1020 ions/cm3, or about an order of magnitude higher than in fibers. Furthermore, they should be fabricated at low temperature or co-doped with Al or P oxides to prevent Er ion pair formation.