Planar erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers in glasses: rigorous theory and experimental investigations

By applying a rigorous physical and mathematical treatment, a powerful algorithm for the numerical description of planar erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers has been developed. The model includes spectral resolved absorption as well as stimulated and spontaneous emission. In addition arbitrary refractive index and erbium profiles can be handled. The algorithm was checked with commercially available codes for fiber amplifiers and experimental data on planar waveguide amplifiers.