Continuous-wave broadband emitter based on a transition-metal-ion-doped waveguide

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Materials Science
• Optical Engineering

Background:

• Broadband light sources are crucial for interferometric applications.
• Existing simple broadband sources in the 600-1000 nm range have limited output power.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a simple continuous-wave-pumped transition-metal-ion-doped waveguide as a broadband light source.
• To achieve high output power and spectral bandwidth for interferometry.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a titanium-doped sapphire (Ti:sapphire) planar waveguide.
• Employed a continuous-wave argon-ion laser for pumping.
• Characterized the spectral bandwidth and spatial coherence of the emitted light.

Main Results:

• Achieved spectrally broadband luminescence with a ~130-nm full width at half maximum (FWHM).
• Obtained spatially coherent, single-mode output in the confined direction.
• Generated output powers of several hundreds of microwatts.
• Demonstrated a significant increase in output power compared to previous simple broadband sources.

Conclusions:

• The Ti:sapphire waveguide is suitable as a broadband light source for interferometric applications.
• The developed source offers a substantial power improvement over existing technologies.
• This work paves the way for more efficient interferometric systems.