Yb-doped yttria–alumino–silicate nano-particles based optical fibers: Fabrication and characterization

An efficient method to fabricate transparent glass ceramic fibers containing in-situ grown Yb3+ doped oxide nano-particles based on yttria–alumino–silicate glass is presented. These large-mode area Yb3+ doped fibers having a core diameter around 25.0 μm were drawn by a proper control over the involved process parameters; by this, the size of nano-particles was maintained within 5–10 nm. The main spectroscopic and laser properties of the fabricated fibers along with the nano-structuration results are reported. These results reveal that the developed method offers new scopes for the contemporary Yb3+ fiber based devices.

► Nano-structured Yb2O3 doped D-shaped LMA YAS glass based fibers are fabricated by SD technique. ► Uniform distributions of dopants are obtained in fibers core by optimizing fabrication procedures. ► Addition of fluorine keeps the size of nano-particles within 5–10 nm in the fibers. ► Measured Yb3+ fluorescence lifetime of the fibers is found to be 1.0±0.01 ms. ► Overall (slope) efficiency >60 (70)% of lasing is obtained at clad-pumping.