Er–Al-codoped silicate planar light waveguide–type amplifier fabricated by radio-frequency sputtering

A planar light waveguide-type optical amplifier was designed and fabricated. A core layer of Er-Al-codoped SiO>(2) glass was deposited onto a silica cladding layer by rf sputtering. In the Er-doped core layer the average Er and Al concentrations were 0.77 and 11.37 wt.%, respectively. We achieved 5 dB of gain with 20 mW of 980-nm pump power by using -20 dBm of 1546-nm input signal power.