Effect of temperature on the active properties of erbium-doped optical fibres

We have studied the effect of heating on the performance of erbium-doped fibre based devices and determined temperaturedependent absorption and emission cross sections of the erbium ion in silica glass. The results demonstrate that heating of fibres in claddingpumped high-power (≈100 W) erbium-doped fibre lasers causes no significant decrease in their efficiency. In contrast, superluminescent sources operating in the long-wavelength region (1565 – 1610 nm) are extremely sensitive to temperature changes.