Spectral hole burning in erbium-doped fibers for slow light

Abstract

The homogeneous linewidth of the transition I15/24−I13/24 in highly doped erbium fibers and its dependence with temperature in the range from 10 to 50 K are experimentally characterized using spectral hole burning. The homogeneous linewidth dependence with temperature is quadratic above 20 K where homogeneous broadening is dominated by two-phonon Raman processes, and linear at lower temperatures where direct phonon processes occur. This characteristic power-law dependence was also derived from transmittance measurements. The solution of nonlinear field equations using the results obtained from our experiments predicts that Gaussian probe pulses propagate at subluminal speed through the narrow spectral holes burned in erbium-doped fibers. For gigahertz pulses in the telecommunication window, a fractional delay as high as 0.6 is predicted.