Broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) at a peak wavelength of 1.85 μm from Tm:Ho-doped silica fibre sources is reported, using in-band pumping from a Yb:Er co-doped fibre laser operating at 1.61 μm. A maximum total output power from both ends of greater than 80 mW with slope efficiency >14% has been achieved. An ASE bandwidth at FWHM of near 70 nm was measured from the forward signal for the output power from 2–40 mW. The total fluorescence spectral width is >200 nm. This broadband ASE source has potential applications in optical metrology, fibre sensors, loss and dispersion tests on optical fibres, spectroscopy and medical imaging, including optical coherence tomography. A review of different pumping schemes in generating ASE around 1.9 μm in the Tm-doped fibre is given. Also the nature of three-level ASE and in-band pumping of Tm:Ho-doped silica fibre are also discussed. The results in this paper confirm that in-band pumped Tm-silica fibre is a route to achieve high power broadband output around 1.8 μm.
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Tsang et al. (2004) studied this question.