Nonmonotonic saturation characteristic and excited state absorption in long optical fiber

Abstract

A sort of nontrivial competition between the excited state absorption (ESA) and optical gain is shown and interpreted for 9 m-long optical fiber. Using a typical SiO2:Nd3+ fiber we observe an interesting nonmonotonic dependence of the gain on signal (probe beam) intensity with substantial contribution of the ESA. This behavior is simulated via kinetic analysis. © The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com.