Abstract

The favourable optical properties of aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃) waveguides make it an excellent laser gain medium for monolithic laser devices. Recently, low-loss erbium-doped aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃:Er³⁺) channel waveguide amplifiers have demonstrated internal net gain over a wavelength range of 80 nm (1500–1580 nm), with a peak gain of 2.0 dB/cm at 1533 nm [1]. Consequently, the first integrated Al₂O₃:Er³⁺ laser was demonstrated in a ring resonator geometry soon thereafter [2]. Due to the wide gain bandwidth, the laser was shown to operate on several wavelengths in the range 1530–1557 nm.

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