Study of an optimised bidirectional pump scheme for fs-laser written Yb/Er-codoped integrated waveguides

The influence of the working conditions on the performance of bidirectionally pumped fs-laser written Yb/Er-codoped waveguide active devices is numerically analysed. The large variations in the optimal length of the waveguide, the gain dependence on the pump wavelengths and the more efficient pump-to-signal power conversion that can be obtained by asymmetric pump configurations for large-signal-regime waveguide amplifiers or waveguide lasers confirm the need of accurate modelling to achieve optimised designs for these devices. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.