Erbium Doped LaF3 Nanoparticle Doped Optical Fiber

PAC

Broadband amplifiers utilizing rare earth ions have been examined for many years in the telecommunications industry. They take optical signals that have been weakened by attenuation and boost their intensity so they can get the information where it needs to go. In an attempt to optimize the properties of the rare earth ions, a method of solution doping optical fiber preforms using LaF3 nanoparticles prepared by solution precipitation chemistry was employed. This study focused on nanoparticles doped with various amounts of erbium and employing them to widen the energy bands within the fiber. The particles start off as fluorinated nanoparticles but due to the heat when the preform is produced the fluoride converts to an oxide. Photoluminescence (PL) was performed to verify rare earth emission, dynamic light scattering (DLS) was used to check the size of the particles and elemental dispersive x-ray (EDX) using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to analyze the composition of the fiber. Results will be discussed.