Rare-Earth Doped Photonic Crystal Fibre Lasers and Amplifiers

In this thesis, a theoretical and numerical study of the use of rare-earthdoped photonic crystal fibres as optical amplifiers and lasers, has been performed. Photonic crystal fibres or microstructured optical fibres is a new kind of optical fibre in which the cladding region typically consist of a periodic microstructure, resulting in a fibre with very different properties compared to conventional optical fibres. The properties of photonic crystals fibres are described, with focus on the advantages this technology provides compared to conventional fibres, within the area of optical amplification. The thesis also presents the basic properties of optical amplification, and describes the numerical model developed to model the behaviour of lasers and amplifiers based on photonic crystal fibres. The developed numerical tools are then used to investigate specific applications of photonic crystal fibres. Their novel properties allow for design of optical fibre amplifiers and fibre lasers with superior performance, compared to solutions based on conventional fibres. The primary applications considered are high efficiency fibre amplifiers based on index guiding photonic crystal fibres, and cladding pumped airguiding fibre lasers, based on photonic bandgap guiding fibres.