US Patent 7791791 Transparent electro-optic gain ceramics and devices

The present invention provides a rare-earth ions doped, especially erbium and ytterbium doped transparent electro-optic gain ceramic material consisting lead, zirconium, titanium and lanthanum. The electro-optic gain ceramic material either has a linear electro-optic coefficient or a quadratic electro-optic coefficient, which is greater than about 0.3×10−16 m2/V2 for the latter, a propagation loss of less than about 0.3 dB/mm, and an optical gain of great than 1.5 dB/mm at a wavelength of about 1550 nm while optically pumped by a 1.4 watts diode laser at a wavelength of 970 nm at 20° C. The present invention also provides electro-optic devices including a rare-earth ions doped, especially erbium and ytterbium doped, transparent electro-optic gain ceramic material consisting lead, zirconium, titanium and lanthanum. The present invention also provides lossless optical devices and amplifiers with an operating wavelength in the range of 1450 nm to 1700 nm while optically pumped at a wavelength in the range of 880 nm to 1020 nm. The materials and devices of the present invention are useful in light intensity, phase and polarization control at a wavelength of about 1550 nm.