Potential of Functional Silica Glass by Zeolite Method and Development of Specialty Fiber Elements

Abstract

The zeolite method enables the uniform dispersion of impurity elements, particularly rare-earth elements, in silica glass. Applications primarily allow more ultra-high concentrations of rare-earth elements to be doped in silica glass than in the conventional method. We proposed a high average-power laser medium and an ultra-short fiber laser by the zeolite method. The zeolite method, which covers uniform dispersion characteristics, can separate the complexity in the measurement results and simplify countermeasures in material development. As an example, we explain an application for photo-darkening suppression in Yb-doped silica fiber and show the possibility of the zeolite method.