Quantifying energy transfer in Tm-doped silicate fiber

This study focuses on quantification of the well-known cross-relaxation, energy transfer upconversion and energy migration processes in Tm3+-doped aluminosilicate glass fibers. A detailed energy transfer model has been applied to fluorescence decay measurements of the 3H4 and 3F4 energy levels of Tm3+-doped aluminosilicate fibers over a range of incident pump power. These fibers spanned a range of Tm3+-doping concentrations, enabling the relationships between these energy transfer processes and Tm3+-doping concentration to be measured. We find that the functional dependence with the Tm3+ concentration is markedly different for each energy transfer process. In addition, our findings are suggestive that the host composition of aluminosilicate glass presents unique energy transfer properties for Tm3+-doped fibers, compared with other common host materials.