Modeling of planar ion-exchanged Er³⁺-doped glass waveguide amplifiers

Modeling results for Er³⁺-doped waveguide amplifiers fabricated by various ion-exchange processes are presented. The gain performance of these devices for 0.98- and 1.48-μm pump wavelengths are compared. Measured spectroscopic properties of a phosphate glass with Er³⁺ concentration of 3.7×10²⁰ cm^-3 are used throughout the modeling, and waveguide propagation loss of 0.1 to 0.6 dB/cm is used. It is shown that gain coefficients exceeding 5 dB/cm are feasible utilizing optimized ion-exchanged waveguides in this glass. The modeling is performed for glasses doped with erbium only, excluding possible ytterbium codoping.