Study of mid-infrared laser action in chalcogenide rare earth doped glass with Dy^3+, Pr^3+and Tb^3+

We present a study of chalcogenide glass fiber lasers doped withDy3+, Pr3+ or Tb3+ that would operate in the mid-infrared wavelength range.A set of chalcogenide glass samples doped with different concentrations ofrare earth ions is fabricated. The modeling parameters are directly extractedfrom FTIR absorption measurements of the fabricated bulk glass samplesusing Judd-Ofelt, Füchtbauer–Ladenburg theory and McCumber theory.The modeling results show that, for all the dopants considered, an efficientmid-infrared laser action is possible if optical losses are kept at the level of1dB/m or below.