Polymer optical waveguide composed of europium-aluminum-acrylate composite core for compact optical amplifier and laser

We successfully fabricate polymer waveguides with Europium-Aluminum (Eu-Al) polymer composite core using the Mosquito method that utilizes a microdispenser for realizing a compact waveguide optical amplifiers and lasers. Rareearth (RE) ions are widely used as the gain medium for fiber lasers and optical fiber amplifiers. However, high concentration doping of rare-earth-ion leads to the concentration quenching resulting in observing less gain in optical amplification. For addressing the concentration quenching problem, a rare-earth metal (RE-M) polymer composite has been proposed by KRI, Inc. to be a waveguide core material. Actually, 10-wt% RE doping into organic polymer materials was already achieved. Hence, realization of compact and high-efficiency waveguide amplifiers and lasers have been anticipated using the RE-M polymer composite. In this paper, a microdispenser is adopted to fabricate a Eu-doped polymer waveguide. Then, it is experimentally confirmed that the low-loss waveguides are fabricated with a high reproducibility. Optical gain is estimated by measuring the amplified spontaneous emission using the variable stripe length method. The fabricated waveguide exhibits an optical gain as high as 7.1 dB/cm at 616-nm wavelength.