Abstract :

Advances in low-loss high purity glasses were initially driven by fiber-optic communications, and the related interest in developing low-loss optical fibers covering a variety of spectral regions, which in turn led to the development of fibers as rare earth and transition metal ion host media for numerous unique fiber amplifier, laser and attenuator applications. The ultralow “Rayleigh scattering limited” loss floors theoretically achievable at longer wavelengths spurred the development of low-loss mid-IR fibers leading to three dominant families of “soft glass” fibers, namely fluorides, chalcogenides, and tellurites. Of these families of mid-IR fibers and glasses, the fluoride glass fiber technology has emerged as the most mature because of its unique combination of broad transparency, glass stability, and its “fiberizability” into low-loss single-mode fibers.
In this talk, he will review device optimization issues related to glass-based mid-infrared optoelectronic devices, notably mid-infrared fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers, nonlinear optic frequency converters and comb generators, and micro-resonators for sensors and mid-IR micro-lasers. Specific achievements – including the attainment of >20 Watts of output power in mid-IR fiber lasers will be discussed, along with the prospect of achieving narrow linewidth sub-megahertz mid-IR fiber lasers spanning the mid-IR spectral range between 2-7 microns.

About the speaker:

Dr. Ravinder K Jain is Professor of ECE and Physics at the University of New Mexico. After obtaining his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and spending over 15 years in industry, notably Bell Labs, Hughes Research Labs, and Amoco Technology Company, he transitioned to academics as Endowed Chair of Micro-electronics at the University of New Mexico, where he served as Associate Director for the Alliance of Photonics Technology. He has served on several professional societies and conference committees, the Board of Governors at IEEE-LEOS, the Board of Directors at the Optical Society of America (OSA), and is currently serving as an Associate Editor for Optics Express. He has an H-index of 41, with over 160 publications and over 20 patents, and is a recipient of numerous professional awards, including SPIE’s Edgerton Award and is a Fellow of OSA, IEEE, SPIE, and the American Physical Society.