Proton- and Gamma-induced effects on erbium-doped optical fibers

S. Girard, Blandine Tortech, E. Régnier, Marco Van Uffelen, Andrei Goussarov, Y. Ouerdane, J. Baggio, P. Paillet, V. Ferlet-Cavrois, A. Boukenter, Jean-Pierre Meunier, F. Berghmans, J. R. Schwank, M. R. Shaneyfelt, J. A. Felix, E. W. Blackmore, H. Thienpont

    Research outputpeer-review

    Abstract

    We characterized the responses of three erbium-doped fibers with slightly different concentrations of rare-earth ions (240-290 ppm) and Al 2O3 (7-10 wt.%) during proton and γ-ray exposures. We have simultaneously measured the radiation-induced attenuation (RIA) around the Er3+ ion pumping wavelength (980 nm) and the associated changes of the Er3+ emission around 1530 nm. The three erbium-doped fibers show similar radiation responses. AU fibers exhibit RIA levels between 9 ×10-3 and 1.7× 10-3 dB m-1 Gy -1 at 980 nm and between 4 × 10-3 and 1.1 × 10-2 dB m-1 Gy-1 at 1530 nm. Protons and γ-rays lead to similar radiation damages, with small differences between the protons of different energies (50 MeV and 105 MeV). Furthermore, we have performed online measurements of the spectral dependence of RIA from 600 to 1600 nm and offline measurements from 1200 to 2400 nm. The three fibers exhibit the same spectral response. Losses decrease monotonically from the visible to the infrared part of the spectrum. We have performed spectral decomposition of these RIA curves with the help of absorption bands previously associated with radiation-induced point defects. Our analysis shows that the main part of the RIA (600-1700 nm) in erbium-doped glass can be explained by the generation of Al-related point defects. The other defects related to the germanium and phosphorus doping of the silica seem to have a lower contribution to the induced losses. The Er3+ ion properties seem to be mainly unaffected by proton exposure, suggesting a solvation shell around the Er3+ ion formed by Al2O3 species.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)2426-2434
    Number of pages9
    JournalIEEE transactions on nuclear Science
    Volume54
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Dec 2007

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
    • Nuclear Energy and Engineering
    • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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