Abstract

We successfully prepared, for the first time to our knowledge, graded-index (GI) organic-dye-doped polymer-optical-fiber amplifiers (POFAs).^1,2 High-power and high-gain optical amplification in a short length of the GI POFA is possible because of the extremely large absorption and emission cross sections of the doped dye (approximately 10 000 times those of rare- earth elements) and a large core diameter (more than 500 μm). In addition, a large selection of organic-dye dopants is possible, resulting in amplification covering the entire visible region. These advantages offer attractive applications, such as an amplifier in a polymer-optical-fiber LAN and a booster for a laser diode or other light sources. However, to date the GI POFA has not been characterized in detail.

© 1995 Optical Society of America