Toward optimizing gain in Er-Ba nanoparticle-doped optical fibers.

Modern commercial erbium-doped fibers are limited in their doping concentrations due to the tendency of Er ions to cluster in silicate glasses. Clustering inevitably leads to ion quenching, one major obstacle preventing erbium-doped fibers (EDFs) from scaling to higher laser power near 15XX nm. Here, we present a new, to our knowledge, method for doping erbium into fibers through the use of Er:BaF nanoparticle (NP) precursors.