Efficient structural manipulation of PbS in Er-doped silica optical fibers for enhanced amplification systems

In active silica optical fibers, improving the solubility and uniformity of non-concentration-quenching luminescence centers is a key strategy to achieve high gain fiber amplifiers. Herein, we report a novel Er-doped silica optical fiber (EDF) modified by PbS semiconductor incorporation for the first time. Owing to the bridge role of PbS, Er2O3 nanofilms deposited on the substrate via atomic layer deposition (ALD) have porous and loosely layered network structures with an increasing number of ALD-PbS layers. Subsequently, during the high-temperature fiber preparation process, this loose porous structure aids the dissolution and provides an optimal local environment of Er3+ ions in the silica matrix. As a result, the maximum phonon energy of the silica network for PbS/Er co-doped silica optical fiber (PEDF) is reduced, resulting in an increase of the Er3+ ion fluorescence lifetime, approximately 11.455 ms. Furthermore, we achieved 34 dB maximum gain of PEDF sample with the lowest noise figure of 3.9 dB at 1.5 μm. The gain bandwidth over 20 dB of PEDF is approximately 46 nm, which is nearly 44% higher than that of EDF. These results indicate that the PEDF prepared by structural manipulation has great potentials in optical fiber amplifier and laser applications. •Porous PbS/Er co-doped nanofilms were prepared and characterized.•PbS and Er co-doped silica fibers (PEDF) were fabricated for the first time.•Er3+ ions in PEDF show more uniform distribution and higher fluorescence efficiency.•PEDF has the high gain of 34 dB and low NF of 3.9 dB in the amplification system.•Gain bandwidth of PEDF are increased by 44% compared to the non-PbS doped EDF.