Near-infrared emission enhancement of erbium-doped glass by using silver nanowire

Optical amplifiers are a crucial component for optical communication by maintaining the strength of optic signals over long distances. Currently, optic signals are usually amplified by Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFA). Optical amplification with EDFAs utilize 20-30 meters of Erbium-doped optic fiber, which takes up a large volume. The large volume renders the integration of optical transmitters, optical receivers and optical network units difficult. Therefore, to make optical communication more convenient, research on reducing the size of optical amplifiers is important. This paper proposes the adding of silver nanowires onto Erbium-doped glass to enhance its luminous intensity, then verifies it through experiments. A layer of silver nanowires is plated over pieces of Erbium-doped glass. The excitation emission intensity of both the plated and un-plated Erbium-doped glass were tested. Through analyzing the excitation spectrum, I concluded that the layer of silver nanowires results in an increase in optical gain of the Erbium-doped glass of around 30%.