Channel waveguide lasers in a lead silicate glass fashionedusing the extrusion technique

We report the use of extrusion for the development of planar buried channel waveguide lasers in a neodymium-doped lead-silicate glass host. The extrusion process was performed at a constant die temperature of 555±10°C, an applied pressure of 1850Ncm−2 and a viscosity of 107.8–107.2P, respectively. A planar substrate, 10mm in length cut from the extruded product, had four buried waveguides each with a core size of 8 by 2.5μm in the horizontal and vertical directions. Optical characterization of this waveguide revealed single-mode laser operation at 1058nm with a slope efficiency of 40% for an absorbed power of 59.3mW. The measured device propagation loss was ∼0.3dBcm−1.