Radiation effects on erbium doped optical fibres - on the influence of the fibre composition

Abstract

We have studied the erbium-doped fibers (EDF) sensitivity under irradiation and the induced defects. The first chapter presents the state of the art for the EDF under irradiation as well as some radiation generated silica defects. The second chapter details the radiations used in this thesis and the experimental set-ups mplemented for the characterization of the fiber responses under irradiation and the radiatio induced defects. In the third chapter, we present the response of several erbium- doped fibers irradiated with y-rays, protons and pulsed X-rays. The erbium doped fibers have higher radiation induced sensitivity than the Telecom fibers (SMF28) or than erbium-doped fibers containing little aluminum. The aluminum presence in the EDF core composition is mainly responsible for the fiber performance degradation. Whatever the irradiation typers, the radiation generated defects are related to the host matrix. Our studies also display that the erbium ions are only affected by the interaction with the created defects. The fourth chapter deals with the EDF under UV exposure and shows that the UV rays lead to the same effects than the gamma rays. The last chapter of this thesis presents the study of the optical amplifier undr y irradiation.

Date of Award	31 Jan 2008
Original language	English
Supervisor	Francis Berghmans (Promotor), Hugo Thienpont (Jury), Jacques Tiberghien (Jury), Rik Pintelon (Jury), J.-P. Meunier (Promotor), A.a. Fotiadi (Jury), G. Monnom (Jury), A. Gusarov (Jury), A. Boukenter (Jury), Y. Ouerdane (Jury), E. Burov (Jury), S. Girard (Jury) & M. Van Uffelen (Jury)