This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been
fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <
Preparation of Er:YAG crystal-derived all-glass
silica fibers for a 1550-nm single-frequency laser
Yongyao Xie, Zhenhua Cong, Zhigang Zhao, Xingyu Zhang, Xian Zhao, Wei Zhao, Xianbin Shao, and
Zhaojun Liu
Abstract—YAG crystal-derived all-glass silica fibers (YDSFs)
with different doping concentrations of Er3+ were fabricated using
the molten-core method. A maximum gain coefficient of 1.46
dB/cm was obtained when an Er:YAG rod at a doping
concentration of 5 at.% was used as the precursor material. To
the best of our knowledge, this is the highest gain coefficient at the
1.5-µm band in similar YDSFs. The diffusion between the
Er:YAG core and silica cladding was investigated during the
whole preparation process. Based on the homemade Er3+-doped
YDSF, a 1.55-µm pulsed single-frequency YDSF laser was
demonstrated for the first time, delivering an output power of 24.2
mW when the absorbed pump power was 174 mW. The
corresponding slope efficiency was 15.1%. A single-pulse energy
of ~32.7 nJ was obtained with a pulse duration of 78 ns and a
repetition rate of 739 kHz. The signal-to-noise ratio was higher
than 75 dB.
Index Terms—Single-frequency, distributed Bragg reflector
scheme, pulsed fiber laser, Er:YAG derived silica fiber
I. INTRODUCTION
S INGLE-FREQUENCY 1.55-μm fiber lasers have been
increasingly studied due to their extensive application
potential, such as gravitational wave detection, free space
communications, high-resolution spectroscopy, nonlinear
frequency conversion, and atmospheric remote sensing [1-5].
Distributed feedback (DFB) and distributed Bragg reflector
(DBR) configurations are usually employed to ensure
single-frequency operation [6-9]. In DFB configurations,
serious thermal effects at the center of a phase-shifted fiber
Bragg grating (FBG) lead to instability and limited output
This work was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China
(62075116, 62075117, 11804192), Joint Foundation of the Ministry of
Education (6141A02022430), Natural Science Foundation of Shandong
Province (ZR2019MF039, ZR2020MF114), Foundation for Qilu Young
Scholars from Shandong University, and Foundation for Distinguished Young
Scholars from Shandong University. (Corresponding author: Zhaojun Liu.)
Yongyao Xie, Zhenhua Cong, Zhigang Zhao, Xingyu Zhang, Wei Zhao,
Xianbin Shao, and Zhaojun Liu are with the School of Information Science and
Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China, and with the
Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Laser Technology and Application,
Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China (e-mail:
yongyaoxie@mail.sdu.edu.cn; congzhenhua@sdu.edu.cn;
zhigang@sdu.edu.cn; 201912462@mail.sdu.edu.cn;
201832610@mail.sdu.edu.cn; xyz@sdu.edu.cn; zhaojunliu@sdu.edu.cn).
Xian Zhao is with the Key Laboratory of Laser and Infrared System
Integration Technology of the Ministry of Education, Shandong University,
Jinan 250100, China (e-mail: zhaoxian@sdu.edu.cn).
0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
1
power [6]. In comparison, the DBR configuration allows better
stability and higher output power because gain medium and
feedback gratings are independent [7-9]. High gain fibers are
core devices for DBR single frequency lasers. As far as a
1.55-μm waveband is concerned, high concentration
Er3+-doped fibers are definitely required; however, these lasers
suffer from the low doping concentration of Er3+ in silica glass
due to the severe concentration quenching effect. Therefore, the
output powers are limited to hundreds of microwatts [9-11].
Multicomponent glasses, such as silicate glasses and phosphate
glasses, can be highly doped with rare earth ions at the expense
of having poor mechanical strengths and thermal stabilities [12].
In addition, it is difficult to splice silicate glass and phosphate
glass fibers with commercially available silica fibers because of
their different softening temperatures and thermal expansion
coefficients [13].
Recently, new-type YAG crystal-derived all-glass silica
fibers (YDSFs), which are based on yttrium aluminosilicate
(YAS) glass cores, have been developed and exhibit some
novel properties in fiber lasers [14-18]. First, the relatively high
doping concentrations of Al2O3 and Y2O3 in the core suitably
shift the immiscibility range of the RE2O3 in SiO2, permitting
higher doping. Second, the Al and Y components also increase
the acoustic velocity in the core, leading to acoustic waveguide
losses and a reduction in the acousto-optic scattering integral,
which are beneficial for suppressing the stimulated Brillouin
scattering (SBS) effect [20]. Moreover, the pure silica cladding
of YDSF makes it more compatible with commercially
available silica fiber devices. All of the aforementioned
characteristics contribute to high-power single-frequency fiber
lasers and high-repetition-rate mode-locked fiber lasers. To
date, several YDSFs with different doped rare-earth ions (Cr3+,
Nd3+, Yb3+, Er3+ and Tm3+) have been successfully fabricated
[20-24]. Based on YDSFs, single-frequency lasers emitting at 1
µm have also been demonstrated in recent years [25-27].
However, few studies on Er:YAG-derived silica fiber-based
~1.55-µm fiber lasers have been reported. More specifically,
single-frequency YDSF lasers operating at ~1.55 µm have
never been reported to the best of our knowledge.
In this contribution, several Er3+-doped YDSFs are
fabricated using the molten-core method. By optimizing the
Er3+ doping concentration in the fiber core, a gain coefficient of
1.46 dB/cm is achieved utilizing 5 at.% Er:YAG as the
precursor material, which is the highest gain coefficient at the
1.55-µm band in similar YDSFs. The transmission loss is
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 2

measured to be ~6 dB/m for the YDSF with a core diameter of
12.3 µm. With the homemade YDSF employed as the gain fiber,
a pulsed 1550-nm single-frequency fiber laser is realized for the
first time. The output power of the laser is 24.2 mW with a
slope efficiency of 15.1%. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is
higher than 75 dB. The shortest pulse duration of 78 ns is also
obtained with a pulse repetition rate of 743 kHz.
optical micrograph of the YDSF cross-section is shown in Fig.
2(b). The core diameter of the obtained YDSFs is measured to
be ~12.3 µm, which is ~2.1 times the calculated value of 5.9 μm.
This result is likely due to the diffusion effects between the
Er:YAG core and the silica cladding during the whole
preparation process.

II. PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ER3+-DOPED

YDSFS
To prepare the YDSF, commercially available Er:YAG
crystals at different doping concentrations (Er3+: 1 at.%, 2.5
at.%, 5 at.%, 7.5 at.% and 10 at.%) were used as the precursor
core materials. The whole preparation process consisted of two
steps, namely, rod fiber fabrication and fiber drawing processes,
as shown in Fig. 1. First, the rod fiber was fabricated using the
molten-core method, in which a YAG-crystal rod with a
diameter of 2.6 mm was inserted into a pure silica tube to
assemble the fiber preforms. The inner and outer diameters of
the silica tube were 2.8 mm and 10 mm, respectively. Then, the
preforms were drawn into rod fibers with a diameter of ~1.7
mm at ~1980 °C. The drawing and feeding speeds were
controlled at ~0.175 m/min and ~5 mm/min, respectively.
Second, the YDSF was drawn from the rod fiber based on the
rod-in-tube approach. These rod fibers with a YAS glass core
were inserted into another piece of silica tubes (with an inner
diameter of 1.8 mm and an outer diameter of 10 mm) to
constitute new preforms, which were drawn into fibers with a
diameter of 125 µm.
Fig. 2. (a) XRD patterns of the YAG crystal and rod fiber core. The inset is the
side view of the rod-fiber. (b) Optical micrograph of the YDSF cross-section.
Figure 3(a) shows the absorption spectra of the YDSFs with
a length of 3 cm in the wavelength region of 600-1650 nm. The
absorption peaks of the Er3+-doped YDSFs are located at 653
nm, 796 nm, 976 nm and 1530 nm, corresponding to the
transitions from the 4I15/2 ground state to the higher states of
4
F9/2, 4I9/2, 4I11/2, and 4I13/2 of Er3+, respectively [19]. The peak
absorption coefficients of E-10, E-7.5 and E-5 are ~300 dB/m,
~193 dB/m and ~156 dB/cm at 976 nm, respectively. These
values are higher than that in traditional silica fiber, which can
enable a relatively high absorption for the pump. The emission
spectra of 5-cm-long YDSFs excited by a 976 nm pump are
shown in Fig. 3(b). The central wavelength of the fluorescence
spectra occurs at 1532 nm for E-1, E-2.5 and E-5. The emission
peaks of E-7.5 and E-10 redshift to a wavelength of 1556 nm,
which is caused by the reabsorption and re-emission effects of
Er3+.

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram showing the Er:YAG-derived silica fiber fabrication

process.

The fibers derived from 1, 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10 at% Er:YAG

were denoted as E-1, E-2.5, E-5, E-7.5 and E-10, respectively.
Figure 2(a) shows the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the
YAG crystal and the obtained rod fiber core. Compared with
the sharp diffraction peaks of the YAG crystal (blue line in Fig.
2(a)), the broad diffraction band indicates an amorphous state
of the rod fiber core (red line in Fig. 2(a)). The inset in Fig. 2(a)
shows the side view of the rod fiber. During the rod fiber
drawing process, serious interdiffusion between the molten Fig. 3. (a) Absorption spectra of the YDSFs in the wavelength region of
YAG crystal core and softened silica cladding occurs in the 600-1650 nm. (b) Emission spectra of the YDSFs excited by the 976-nm pump.
(c) Signal transmittance of the YDSFs at 1550 nm. (d) Insertion losses of the
high-temperature region. Moreover, the YAS glass core is
YDSFs in the cavity. The inset is a schematic diagram showing the
formed with the rapid quenching of the rod fiber [17]. An transmission of the laser passing through the SMF-YDSF-SMF.

0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <
To further investigate the influence of the signal absorption
on the YDSF lasers, the signal transmittance of the YDSFs with
a length of 2 cm was measured at 1550 nm. As shown in Fig.
3(c), the transmittance increases with the signal input power,
and a saturated absorption phenomenon is observed for the
signal laser, suggesting that the YDSFs can be utilized as a
saturable absorber to achieve a self-Q-switched laser output.
Figure 3(d) shows the insertion losses of the YDSFs in the
cavity measured by the cut-back method. The splicing losses of
the two splicing points are measured to be ~0.13 dB
(SMF-YDSF) and ~0.40 dB (YDSF-SMF). The total insertion
loss (SMF-YDSF-SMF) is calculated to be ~0.53 dB, which is
relatively high because of the mode mismatch between the
YDSF and commercially available fiber, as shown in the inset
of Fig. 3(d).
Fig. 4. (a) Schematic diagram showing the amplifier setup based on the YDSFs.
(b) Dependence of the gain coefficient of E-5 on the pump power. (c) Signal
output spectrum at a pump power of 290 mW. (d) Gain performances of the
YDSFs and commercially available Er-doped fiber.
To confirm the potential of the YDSFs for 1.5-µm fiber laser
applications, the gain performances of the YDSFs and
commercially available Er3+-doped silica fiber were measured
by a homemade all-fiber amplifier. A schematic diagram of the
amplifier setup is shown in Fig. 4(a). A 1550-nm
single-frequency diode laser was used as the seed with input
signal powers of 0 dBm, -5 dBm, and -10 dBm. The length of
the YDSF was 2 cm, which was directly spliced with a
wavelength-division multiplexer with a filter (FWDM). Figure
4(b) shows the dependence of the gain coefficient of E-5 on the
pump power. A net gain coefficient of 1.46 dB/cm is achieved
0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
3
at a pump power of 290 mW, which, to the best of our
knowledge, is the highest for similar Er3+-doped YDSFs. The
signal output spectrum of the amplifier is shown in Fig. 4(c).
An SNR of >30 dB between the signal laser and amplified
stimulated emission (ASE) light is observed, proving the
validity of the measured results. The dependence of the gain
coefficient on the Er3+ doping concentrations in the YDSFs was
also investigated (Fig. 4(d)), with the inclusion of
commercially available Er3+-doped silica fiber. Among these
fibers, E-5 exhibits the highest gain coefficient and is fabricated
by using 5-at.% Er:YAG as the precursor core material. The
gain coefficient of the YDSFs decrease with a further increase
in the Er3+ doping concentration. This result is likely due to
pair-induced quenching, resulting in performance degradation
of the Er3+-doped fiber amplifier [28, 29]. This result can be
further identified by the unsaturated absorption of E-7.5 and
E-10 in Fig. 3(c) [30]. Even so, the gain coefficients of E-7.5
and E-10 are still higher than that of the commercial Er3+-doped
fiber (~0.6 dB/cm, LIEKKI Er110-4/125). In addition, the
transmission losses of the YDSFs are measured to be ~6 dB/m
at 1064 nm by the cut-back method.
Figure 5(a) shows the core element distribution profiles of
E-5, measured by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The
obtained scanning electron microscopy (SEM) image of the
fiber cross-section is shown in the inset of Fig. 5(a). As
expected, interdiffusion between the Er:YAG core and silica
cladding occurs. The compositions of the Er3+-doped YDSFs
are shown in Table І. The concentrations of SiO2 and Er2O3
measured in the core center region of E-5 are 60.27 wt.% and
2.96 wt.%, respectively. To further understand the formation
process of the YDSF, diffusion was investigated during the
whole preparation process. The diffusion ratio is defined as the
ratio of the actual value to the calculated value for the core
diameter. Several YDSF samples are fabricated at different
drawing speeds (3.5 m/min, 5 m/min and 7.8 m/min) and
temperatures (1980 °C, 2000 °C, and 2020 °C) from the same
rod fiber during the fiber drawing process. All the diffusion
ratios of these YDSFs are calculated to be ~2.1 according to the
measured core diameter, suggesting that the influence of the
drawing parameters on diffusion is relatively weak during the
fiber drawing process. During the fiber drawing process, the
core of the preform is changed to YAS glass, which exhibits a
higher viscosity than liquid YAG. The high-viscosity core
restricts the diffusion of silica cladding into the core [31]. In
addition, a 5 at.% Er:YAG with a diameter of 1.6 mm is used as
the precursor core material to fabricate a new YDSF sample,
which is denoted as E-5*. The drawing parameters were set to
be the same as those used for E-5 during the whole preparation
process. The diffusion ratio of E-5* is calculated to be ~2.7,
indicating that diffusion becomes more prominent with the
smaller core. This trend is consistent with that in [17], which
might be caused by a shorter diffusion length. The SiO2
concentration of E-5* is evaluated to be ~73 wt.% in the
9.2-µm core region based on the EDS results shown in Fig. 5(b).
The results show that diffusion might occur primarily in the rod
fiber manufacturing process, and the molten-core method is a
highly promising approach for manufacturing a fiber preform
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 4

with a hybrid core. diameter of 9.2 µm, the concentration of SiO2 is 73.12 wt.%,
which is lower than that in [32].
To estimate the relation between the SiO2 concentration, ms,
RI of the core, nc, and the diffusion ratio, γ, a simplified model
combined with the lever rule was built [36,37]. The results can
be described as follows:

ms = 2
(γ 2 -1) ρ s                           (1)
(γ -1) ρ s + ρY
1 nY
nc = ns (1 − )+                           (2)
γ γ2 2

where the mass densities of silica, ρs, and YAG, ρY, are 2.20
Fig. 5. Core element distribution profiles of (a) E-5 and (b) E-5*. The insets are
the SEM images of the fiber cross-sections. and 4.56 g/cm3, respectively. Additionally, the RIs of silica, ns,
and YAG, nY, are 1.458 and 1.820, respectively. With an
TABLE I increase in the diffusion ratio, the SiO2 concentration increases,
COMPOSITIONS OF THE ER-DOPED YDSFS while the RI of the core decreases. As shown in Fig. 6(b), the
SiO2 Al2O3 Y2O3 Er2O3 theoretical result shows good agreement with the experimental
Sample wt.% wt.% wt.% wt.%
results in this work and Refs [16, 22, 36].
E-1 63.59 13.68 22.21 0.52
E-2.5 61.73 14.44 22.16 1.67
TABLE II
E-5 60.27 14.82 21.95 2.96
BASIC PARAMETERS FOR SOME YDSFS
E-7.5 59.56 14.97 21.41 4.06
E-10 58.33 15.16 21.06 5.45 Core SiO2
RI
Sample diameter content NA Refs
difference
µm wt.%
#1 10.0 85.71 / / [32]
#2 12.2 / 0.057 0.41 [33]
#3 15.0 49.58 0.058 0.42 [14]
#4 16.0 / 0.093 0.53 [34]
#5 17.0 / 0.057 0.41 [35]
#6 17.0 58.00 0.116 0.59 [16]
#7 17.0 58.22 0.122 0.61 [20]
#8 9.2 73.12 0.061 0.42 This work
#9 12.3 60.27 0.096 0.53 This work

III. SINGLE FREQUENCY 1550-NM YDSF LASER

Fig. 7. Schematic diagram showing the experimental setup for the 1550-nm
single-frequency fiber laser based on the YDSF.

A single-frequency DBR fiber laser based on YDSF (E-5)

Fig. 6. (a) Refractive index (RI) profiles of the fiber cross-sections. (b)
Dependences of the RI and SiO2 concentrations of the fiber core on the
diffusion ratios.
Figure 6(a) shows the refractive index (RI) profiles of the
fiber cross-sections. The RI differences of E-5 and E-5* are
0.096 and 0.061, corresponding to numerical apertures (NA) of
0.53 and 0.42, respectively. Table ІІ shows the basic parameters
of some YDSFs. The RI difference of E-5 (#9) with a core
diameter of 12.3 µm is comparable to that in [16,20,34] but
larger than that in [14,33,35]. Regarding E-5* (#8) with a core
was built to further verify the performance of the YDSFs, as
shown in Fig. 7. A 1.8-cm-long YDSF was directly spliced with
a pair of 1550-nm fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) to constitute the
laser cavity. A narrowband FBG (NB-FBG) with partial
reflectivity of 76% and a 3-dB bandwidth of 0.06 nm was used
as the output coupler. Another broadband FBG (BB-FBG) with
a high reflectivity of 99.7% and a 3-dB bandwidth of 0.21 nm
was used as the other cavity mirror. Both FBGs were written in
commercially available SMF-28e fibers, whose numerical
aperture (NA) was 0.14 and core diameter was 8.2 μm. The
whole cavity was directly placed in an aluminum heat sink,
which was temperature-controlled with an accuracy of 0.01 °C.

0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 5

The laser cavity was counter pumped by a 976-nm laser diode parasitic pulse exists. This result further demonstrates the
(LD) through a 976/1550 nm wavelength division multiplexer single-frequency operation of the self-Q-switching laser.
(WDM). An isolator (ISO) was fused-spliced with the signal
port of the WDM to prevent detrimental backscattering.
The longitudinal mode spacing of the resonator is calculated
to be 4.03 GHz [38], which is more than half of the reflection
bandwidth of the LR-FBG (7.49 GHz). By precisely controlling
the temperature of the cavity, a robust single longitudinal mode
operation could be achieved. The output power performance of
the single-frequency fiber laser with respect to the absorbed
pump power is shown in Fig. 8(a). A maximum output power of
24.2 mW is obtained at an absorbed pump power of 174 mW,
and no output power saturation is observed. The corresponding
slope efficiency is 15.1%, which is five times that in the
Er3+/Yb3+ codoped silica-based DBR laser [39]. However, it is
still lower than the value of 30.6% in the Er3+/Yb3+ codoped
phosphate fiber laser [40]. Further improvement should be done
with respect to fiber performance, such as reducing the NA.
Figure 8(b) shows the stability of the output power over 3 h.
The output power fluctuation is calculated to be 0.23% (rms).
The single-longitudinal-mode characteristics of the laser are
verified by a scanning Fabry–Perot (F-P) interferometer
(SA210-12B, Thorlabs) with a free spectral range (FSR) of 10
GHz and a fineness of 150. As shown in Fig. 8(c), robust
single-frequency operation without mode hopping is obtained
by precisely controlling the temperature. As shown in the inset
of Fig. 8(b), the F-P scanning spectrum is discrete, illustrating
that the laser operated in a pulsed state [4, 41], which was
caused by a self-Q-switching effect [42]. In the experiment, the
relatively low photon lifetime and high upper state lifetime
result in the pulse operation of the laser [17, 43]. The linewidth
of the pulsed single-frequency laser is calculated to be ~130
MHz. As the resolution of the F-P cavity (67 MHz) is
comparable to the measured laser linewidth, it can be
considered that the actual laser linewidth is 100 MHz in
magnitude. The value is broader than the transform-limited
linewidth (5.7 MHz), which is likely due to the instability of the Fig. 8. (a) Output power of the fiber laser with respect to the absorbed pump
power. (b) Stability of the output power over 3 h. (c) Longitudinal mode
cavity caused by the mode mismatch and environmental characteristics of the fiber laser measured by the scanning Fabry–Perot
disturbance [26, 44]. The emission spectrum of the laser is interferometer. The inset is the discrete peak spectrum. (d) Output spectrum of
measured using an optical spectrum analyzer (AQ6370D, the single-frequency fiber laser. (e) Dependence of the pulse width and
Yokogawa) with a resolution of 0.02 nm. As shown in Fig. 8(d), repetition rate of the laser on the absorbed pump power. (f) Typical trace of the
pulse trains with an absorbed pump power of 174 mW. (g) Pulse shape of the
the center wavelength of the single-frequency laser is at laser with an absorbed pump power of 174 mW.
1550.02 nm with an SNR higher than 75 dB.
Figure 8(e) shows the dependence of the pulse width and IV. CONCLUSION
repetition rate of the laser on the absorbed pump power. The
pulse width decreases from 326 ns to 78 ns with an increasing In conclusion, YDSFs with different doping concentrations of
absorbed pump power, while the repetition rate increases from Er3+ were prepared by the molten core method. Using 5 at.%
297 kHz to 739 kHz. This trend is similar to that in a passively Er:YAG as the precursor material, Er3+-doped YDSF with a
Q-switched fiber laser [45]. A maximum pulse energy of 32.7 gain coefficient of 1.46 dB/cm was obtained. The 976-nm
nJ with a pulse width of 78 ns is also obtained at an absorbed pump absorption coefficient of YDSF reached ~156 dB/m with
pump power of 174 mW. As shown in Fig. 8(f), the typical an Er2O3 doping concentration of 2.96 wt.%. Based on the
trace of the pulse trains at the maximum pulse energy is YDSF, a 1550-nm self-Q-switching single-frequency fiber
recorded by an InGaAs photodetector (PDA05CF2, Thorlabs) laser was realized. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first
and a 100 MHz bandwidth oscilloscope. The pulse shape of the demonstration of a pulsed single-frequency laser with a similar
laser at an absorbed pump power of 174 mW is shown in Fig. YDSF. The output power was 24.2 mW with an SNR of > 75
8(g). It can clearly be observed that the profile of the dB. A single-pulse energy of more than 32.7 nJ was achieved at
single-pulse envelope is smooth and Gaussian-like, and no an absorbed pump power of 174 mW. The pulse width of the

0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) <
laser was 78 ns with a repetition rate of 739 kHz. These results
indicate that the Er3+-doped YDSF is promising for 1.5-µm
single-frequency fiber laser applications.
REFERENCES
[1] O. D. Varona, W. Fittkau, P. Booker, T. Theeg, M. Steinke, D. Kracht, J.
Neumann, and P. Wessels, “Single-frequency fiber amplifier at 1.5 µm with
100 W in the linearly-polarized TEM00 mode for next-generation gravitational
wave detectors,” Opt. Express, vol. 25, no. 21, pp. 24880-24892, Oct. 2017.
[2] Y. Dikmelik and F. M. Davidson, “Fiber-coupling efficiency for free-space
optical communication through atmospheric turbulence,” Appl. Opt., vol. 44,
no. 23, pp. 4946-4952, Aug. 2005.
[3] T. Chen, W. Kong, H. Liu, and R. Shu, “Frequency-stepped pulse train
generation in an amplified frequency-shifted loop for oxygen A-band
spectroscopy,” Opt. Express, vol. 26, no. 26, pp. 34753-34762, Dec. 2018.
[4] Z. Zhao, H. Xuan, H. Igarashi, S. Ito, K. Kakizaki, and Y. Kobayashi,
“Single frequency, 5 ns, 200 μJ, 1553 nm fiber laser using silica based Er-doped
fiber,” Opt. Express, vol. 23, no. 23, pp. 29764-29771, Nov. 2015.
[5] M. Stephen, M. Krainak, H. Riris, and G. R. Allan, “Narrowband, tunable,
frequency-doubled, erbium-doped fiber-amplified transmitter,” Opt. Lett., vol.
32, no. 15, pp. 2073-2075, Aug. 2007.
[6] J. T. Kringlebotn, J. L. Archambault, L. Reekie, and D. N. Payne,
“Er3+:Yb3+-codoped fiber distributed-feedback laser,” Opt. Lett., vol. 19, no. 24,
pp. 2101-2103, Dec. 1994.
[7] S. Fu, X. Zhu, J. Zong, M. Li, I. Zavala, V. Temyanko, A. C. Pirson, R. A.
Norwood, and N. Peyghambarian, “Single-frequency Nd3+-doped phosphate
fiber laser at 915 nm,” J. Lightwave Technol., Accepted.
[8] Q. Fang, Y. Xu, S. Fu, and W. Shi, “Single-frequency distributed Bragg
reflector Nd doped silica fiber laser at 930 nm,” Opt. Lett., vol. 41, no. 8, pp.
1829-1832, Apr. 2016.
[9] J. L. Zyskind, V. Mizrahi, D. J. DiGiovanni, and J. W. Sulhoff, “Short single
frequency erbium-doped fibre laser,” Electron. Lett., vol. 28, no. 15, pp.
1385-1387, Jul. 1992.
[10] J. L. Wagener, P. F. Wysocki, M. J. F. Digonnet, H. J. Shaw, and D. J.
DiGiovanni, “Effects of concentration and clusters in erbium-doped fiber
lasers,” Opt. Lett., vol. 18, no. 23, pp. 2014-2016, Dec. 1993.
[11] Z. H. Fu, Y. X. Wang, D. Z. Yang and Y. H. Shen, “Single-frequency
linear cavity erbium-doped fiber laser for fiber-optic sensing applications,”
Laser Phys. Lett., vol. 6, no. 8, pp. 594-597, Apr. 2009.
[12] H. Li, J. Lousteau, W. N. MacPherson, X. Jiang, H. T. Bookey, J. S. Barton,
A. Jha, and A. K. Kar, “Thermal sensitivity of tellurite and germanate optical
fibers,” Opt. Express, vol. 15, no. 14, pp. 8857-8863, Jul. 2007.
[13] S. Jiang and J. Wang. “Method of fusion splicing silica fiber with
low-temperature multi-component glass fiber.” U.S. Patent 6 705 771, Mar. 16,
2004.
[14] Y. Wan, J. Wen, Y. Dong, C. Jiang, M. Jia, F. Tang, N. Chen, Z. Zhao, S.
Huang, F. Pang, and T. Wang, “Exceeding 50% slope efficiency DBR fiber
laser based on a Yb-doped crystal-derived silica fiber with high gain per unit
length,” Opt. Express, vol. 28, no. 16, pp. 23771-23783, Aug. 2020.
[15] G. Tang, G. Qian, W. Lin, W. Wang, Z. Shi, Y. Yang, N. Dai, Q. Qian, and
Z. Yang, “Broadband 2 μm amplified spontaneous emission of
Ho/Cr/Tm:YAG crystal derived all-glass fibers for mode-locked fiber laser
applications,” Opt. Lett., vol. 44, no. 13, pp. 3290-3293, Jul. 2019.
[16] P. D. Dragic, J. Ballato, T. Hawkins, and P. Foy, “Feasibility study of
Yb:YAG-derived silicate fibers with large Yb content as gain media,” Opt.
Mater., vol. 34, no. 8, pp. 1294-1298, Jun. 2012.
[17] J. Ballato, T. Hawkins, P. Foy, B. Kokuoz, R. Stolen, C. McMillen, M.
Daw, Z. Su, T. M. Tritt, M. Dubinskii, J. Zhang, T. Sanamyan, and M. J.
Matthewson, “On the fabrication of all-glass optical fibers from crystals,” J.
Appl. Phys., vol. 105, no. 5, pp. 053110, Mar. 2009.
[18] S. Zheng, J. Li, C. Yu, Q. Zhou, and D. Chen, “Preparation and
characterizations of Nd:YAG ceramic derived silica fibers drawn by
post-feeding molten core approach,” Opt. Express, vol. 24, no. 21, pp.
24248-24254, Oct. 2016.
[19] P. D. Dragic, M. Cavillon, and J. Ballato, “Materials for optical fiber lasers:
A review,” Appl. Phys. Rev., vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 041301, Dec. 2018.
[20] P. Dragic, P.-C. Law, J. Ballato, T. Hawkins, and P. Foy, “Brillouin
spectroscopy of YAG-derived optical fibers,” Opt. Express, vol. 18, no. 10, pp.
10055-10067, May. 2010.
[21] Y. Xie, Z. Liu, Z. Cong, Z. Qin, S. Wang, Z. Jia, C. Li, G. Qin, X. Gao, and
X. Zhang, “All-fiber-integrated Yb:YAG-derived silica fiber laser generating 6
W output power,” Opt. Express, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 3791-3798, Feb. 2019.
0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
6
[22] Y. Huang, J. Wang, Y. Lin, T. Lin, W. Wang, Y. Lu, S. Yeh, H. Kuo, S.
Huang, and W. Chen, “Development of Broadband Single-Mode Cr-Doped
Silica Fibers,” IEEE Photon. Tech. Lett., vol. 22, no. 12, pp. 914-916, Jun.
2010.
[23] S. Yoo, A. S. Webb, R. J. Standish, T. C. May-Smith, and J. K. Sahu,
“Q-switched neodymium-doped Y3Al5O12-based silica fiber laser,” Opt. Lett.,
vol. 37, no. 12, pp. 2181-2183, Jun. 2012.
[24] G. Qian, W. Wang, G. Tang, X. Guan, W. Lin, Q. Qian, D. Chen, C. Yang,
J. Liu, G. Zhou, S. Xu, and Z. Yang, “Tm:YAG ceramic derived multimaterial
fiber with high gain per unit length for 2 µm laser applications,” Opt. Lett., vol.
45, no. 5, pp. 1047-1050, Mar. 2020.
[25] Y. Zhang, W. Wang, J. Li, X. Xiao, Z. Ma, H. Guo, G. Dong, S. Xu, and J.
Qiu, “Multi‐component yttrium aluminosilicate (YAS) fiber prepared by
melt‐in‐tube method for stable single‐frequency laser,” J. Am. Ceram. Soc., vol.
102, no. 5, pp. 2551-2557, May. 2019.
[26] Z. Liu, Y. Xie, Z. Cong, Z. Zhao, Z. Jia, C. Li, G. Qin, S. Wang, X. Gao, X.
Shao, and X. Zhang, “110 mW single-frequency Yb:YAG crystal-derived silica
fiber laser at 1064  nm,” Opt. Lett., vol. 44, no. 17, pp. 4307-4310, Sep. 2019.
[27] Y. Xie, Z. Cong, Z. Zhao, Z. Liu, X. Zhao, Z. Qin, Z. Jia, G. Qin, X. Shao,
X. Gao, and X. Zhang, “Linearly polarized single-frequency fiber laser based
on the Yb:YAG-crystal derived silica fiber,” Appl. Opt., vol. 59, no. 32, pp.
9931-9936, Nov. 2020.
[28] E. Delevaque, T. Georges, M. Monerie, P. Lamouler, and J. -F. Bayon,
“Modeling of pair-induced quenching in erbium-doped silicate fibers,” IEEE
Photon. Tech. Lett., vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 73-75, Jan. 1993.
[29] C. Jiang, W. Hu, Q. Zeng, “Numerical analysis of concentration quenching
model of Er3+-doped phosphate fiber amplifier,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.,
vol. 39, no. 10, pp. 1266-1271, Oct. 2003.
[30] P. Myslinski, D. Nguyen and J. Chrostowski, “Effects of concentration on
the performance of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers,” J. Light. Technol., vol. 15,
no. 1, pp. 112-120, Jan. 1997.
[31] M. Cavillon, P. Dragic, B. Faugas, T. Hawkins, and J. Ballato, “Insights
and aspects to the modeling of the molten core method for optical fiber
fabrication,” Materials, vol. 12, no. 18, pp. 2898-2908, Sep. 2019.
[32] Y. F. Wang, Y. M. Zhang, J. K. Cao, L. P. Wang, X. L. Peng, J. P. Zhong,
C. S. Yang, S. H. Xu, Z. M. Yang, and M. Y. Peng, “915 nm all-fiber laser
based on novel Nd doped high alumina and yttria glass @ silica glass hybrid
fiber for pure blue fiber laser,” Opt. Lett., vol. 44, no. 9, pp. 2153-2156, May.
2019.
[33] Y. M. Zhang, X. Q. Ding, X. J. Xiao, J. P. Zhong, and J. R. Qiu,
“Preparation of Yttrium Aluminum Silicate Fiber with Gradient Refractive
Index Distribution,” J. Chin. Ceram. Soc., vol. 15, no. 22, pp. 1524-1528, Nov.
2018.
[34] Y. C. Huang, J. S. Wang, Y. K. Lu, W. K. Liu, K. Y. Huang, S. L. Huang,
and W. H. Cheng, “Preform fabrication and fiber drawing of 300 nm broadband
Cr-doped fibers,” Opt. Express, vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 14382-14388, Oct. 2007.
[35] Y. M. Zhang, G. Q. Qian, X. S. Xiao, X. L. Tian, X. Q. Ding, Z. J. Ma, L. Y.
Yang, H. T. Guo, S. H. Xu, Z. M. Yang, and J. R. Qiu, “The preparation of
Yttrium Aluminosilicate (YAS) Glass Fiber with heavy doping of Tm3+ from
Polycrystalline YAG ceramics,” J. Am. Ceram. Soc., vol. 10, no. 101, pp.
4627-4633, Apr. 2018.
[36] C. Y. Lo, K. Y. Huang, J. C. Chen, S. Y. Tu, and S. L. Huang, “Glass-clad
Cr4+:YAG crystal fiber for the generation of super wideband amplified
spontaneous emission,” Opt. Lett., vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 439-441, Mar. 2004.
[37] P. D. Dragic, “Simplified model for effect of Ge doping on silica fibre
acoustic properties,” Electron. Lett., vol. 45, no. 5, pp. 256-257, Feb. 2009.
[38] Y. O. Barmenkov, D. Zalvidea, S. Torres-Peiró, J. L. Cruz, and M. V.
Andrés, “Effective length of short Fabry-Perot cavity formed by uniform fiber
Bragg gratings,” Opt. Express, vol. 14, no. 14, pp. 6394-6399, Jul. 2006.
[39] W. Shi, S. J. Fu, Q. Fang, Q. Sheng, H. W. Zhang, X. L. Bai, G. N. Shi, J. H.
Li, and J. Q. Yao, “Single-frequency fiber laser based on rare-earth-doped silica
fiber,” Infrared and Laser Engineering, vol. 45, no. 10, pp. 1003001, Oct. 2016.
[40] S. H. Xu, Z. M. Yang, T. Liu, W. N. Zhang, Z. M. Feng, Q. Y. Zhang, and
Z. H. Jiang, “An efficient compact 300 mW narrow-linewidth single frequency
fiber laser at 1.5 μm,” Opt. Express, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 1249-1254, Jan. 2010.
[41] J. Geng, Q Wang, J Smith, T. Luo, F. Amzajerdian, and S. Jiang, “All-fiber
Q-switched single-frequency Tm-doped laser near 2 µm,” Opt. Let., vol. 34, no.
23, pp. 3713-3715, Dec. 2009.
[42] T. Y. Tsai and Y. C. Fang, “A self-Q-switched all-fiber erbium laser at
1530 nm using an auxiliary 1570-nm erbium laser,” Opt. Express, vol. 17, no.
24, pp. 21628-21633, Nov. 2009.
[43] M. Dinand and C. Schiitte, “Theoretical modeling of relaxation
oscillations in Er-doped waveguide lasers,” J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 13, no.
1, pp. 14-23, Jan. 1995.
This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/JLT.2021.3076889, Journal of
Lightwave Technology
> REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR PAPER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (DOUBLE-CLICK HERE TO EDIT) < 7

[44] A. Gagan, “Line narrowing in a single-mode injection laser due to external Engineering of Shandong University, successively as an
optical feedback,” IEEE J. Quantum Elect., vol. 20, no. 5, pp. 468-471, May.
Assistant Lecturer (1986-1988), a Lecturer (1988-1996), an
1984.
[45] Y. Zhang, S. Wang, W. Lin, S. Mo, Q. Zhao, C. Yang, Z. Feng, H. Deng, Associate Professor (1996-1999), and a Professor (1999-now).
M. Peng, Z. Yang and S. Xu, “Compact passively Q-switched single-frequency He also serves as the Director of the Laser Society of Shandong
Er3+/Yb3+ codoped phosphate fiber laser,” Appl. Phys. Express, vol. 10, no. 5, Province and the Director of Shandong Provincial Key
pp. 052502, Apr. 2017.
Laboratory of Laser Technology and Application. His research
Yongyao Xie received his B.S. degree in interests include solid-state lasers, frequency conversion, THz
Optoelectronic Technology and Science generation by nonlinear processes, interaction between
from Changchun University of Science powerful pulses and matter, and optoelectronic detection.
and Technology, Changchun, China, in
2016. He is currently pursuing his Xian Zhao received a B.S. degree in
doctorate in optical engineering at optics, an M.S. degree in physical
Shandong University. His current research chemistry, and a Ph.D. degree in quantum
involves novel fiber manufacturing and chemistry from Shandong University,
their applications, single-frequency fiber Jinan, China, in 1991, 1994, and 1998,
lasers, single-crystal fiber lasers, high-power narrow-linewidth respectively. He started working at the
fiber amplifiers, and so on. Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong
University, Jinan, China, from 1998 as a
Zhenhua Cong is currently (since July, postdoctoral researcher and was promoted
2011) in the School of Information Science to be professor there in 2003. He is now (since 2017) with the
and Engineering, Shandong University, Center of Optics Research and Engineering, Shandong
China. He received his B.S. degree from University, Qingdao, China. His current research involves
Shandong University in 2005, and Ph.D. optoelectronic functional materials and devices, SWIR
degree in optical engineering from detection and imaging and so on.
Shandong University in 2011. From March
2010 to March 2011, he worked in the Wei Zhao received her B.S. degree in
nanophotonics labs at Nanyang opto-electronics information science and
Technological University. His research interests include crystal engineering from Shandong University,
fiber lasers, single-frequency fiber lasers, all-solid-state Raman Jinan, China, in 2019. She is currently
lasers, frequency-doubled Raman lasers and mode locking pursuing her Master’s in optical
lasers. engineering at Shandong University. Her
research interests include the fabrication
Zhigang Zhao received a B.S. degree and testing of special optical fibers,
from Shandong University, Jinan, China single-frequency fiber lasers, and so on.
and a Ph.D. degree in optical engineering
from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Xianbin Shao received his B.S. degree in
China, in 2006 and 2011, respectively. He applied physics from Shandong Jianzhu
was with the Institut fur Optik und University, Jinan, China, in 2017. He is
Atomare Physik, Technische Universitat currently pursuing his Master’s in optical
Berlin, as a Post-doctoral researcher from engineering at Shandong University. His
August 2011 to July 2012. From research interests include special fiber
November 2012 to October 2018, he worked as a Researcher at drawing, material preparation,
the Institute for Solid State Physics (ISSP), University of single-frequency fiber lasers, and so on.
Tokyo, Japan. He is currently a Professor with the School of
Information Science and Engineering, Shandong University,
Qingdao, China. His current research involves high power Zhaojun Liu received a B.S. degree and
ultrashort pulse fiber lasers, high power ultrashort pulse Ph.D. degree in optical engineering from
Yb:YAG laser amplifiers, high repetition rate VUV source Shandong University, Jinan, China, in
generation for ARPES, direct laser diode pumped Alexandrite 2003 and 2008, respectively. He started
lasers, high-energy Nd:YAG lasers for laser cleaning and so on. working at Shandong University, China in
July, 2008. From November 2011 to
Xingyu Zhang was born in Shandong October 2012, he spent one year at Lehigh
Province, P. R. China in 1963. He got his University as a Post-doctoral researcher. In
B.S. degree in physics in 1983 and M.S. September, 2017, he was promoted to full
degree in optics in 1986 from Nankai professor at the School of Information Science and Engineering
University, and Doctoral degree in optical in Shandong University. His current research involves
engineering in 2001 from Shandong single-crystal fiber manufacturing and their applications on
University. Since 1986, he has been with compact single-frequency lasers, high-power fiber lasers,
the School of Information Science and Raman lasers, optical system designs, and so on.

0733-8724 (c) 2021 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
Authorized licensed use limited to: Lukasiewicz - IMiF. Downloaded on July 09,2021 at 08:24:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.