Sol-Gel Fabrication and Properties of Silica Cores of Optical Fibers Doped with Yb3+, Er3+, Al2 O3 or TiO2

Optical cores of preforms for drawing optical fibers doped with Er3+ and Yb3+ were fabricated by the sol-gel method with the aim of increasing the thickness of glass layers coated in a single coating cycle and to determine the relation between the preparation conditions and optical properties of the fibers. Al2O3-P2O5-SiO2 and TiO2-P2O5-SiO2 glasses have been studied as matrices for entrapping the rare-earth elements. Input sols have been prepared from silicon and titanium alkoxides, AlCl3, ErCl3, YbCl3, POCl3, water and a modifier under acidic catalysis of HCl. The sols were coated on the inner wall of a silica substrate tube and the gel layers were sintered at high temperatures up to 2000°C after which the tube was collapsed into the preform. Continuous and homogenous glass films with the maximum thickness of about 8 μm were fabricated. The influence of high-temperature heat treatment of the layers on their composition and optical attenuation was observed. The amplified stimulated emission of Er3+ around 1.55 μm was measured under the excitation of the fibers by an Nd : YAG laser at 1.064 μm.