Observation of microlaser with Er-doped phosphate glass coated microsphere pumped by 780 nm

The silica microspheres coated with a thin layer of Er-doped phosphate glass are fabricated and whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) with quality factor of 8 × 106 in the 780 nm band are obtained. We demonstrate that the microsphere can form single-mode and multi-mode microlaser in communication-band with a pumping laser of wavelength 780 nm band. Moreover, the representative lateral emission distributed modes in the microsphere can be directly observed via the upconverted photoluminescence.