City Research Online

Abstract

Polymers with gain media can enable 3D printing of chip-scale optical amplifiers and lasers. In this work, a 3D-printable resin containing uniform dispersion of core/shell erbium–ytterbium–cerium codoped rare-earth nanoparticles (RENPs) is designed, synthesized, and characterized. The core/shell RENPs (NaYF4:Er3+,Yb3+,Ce3+@NaYF4) are synthesized by a high-temperature thermal decomposition method. Uniform dispersion at high concentrations of the RENPs in a 3D printable resin is achieved by selectively polymerizing methyl methacrylate on the surface of the RENPs, which prevents nanoparticle agglomeration. It is observed that codoping with Ce3+ ions facilitates nonradiative energy transfer between the upper excited states of Er3+ ions to the Ce3+ ions, significantly suppressing up-conversion pathways and leading to an order of magnitude increase in the down-conversion (1.53 μm) to up-conversion (0.536 μm) ratio using a 980 nm pump. The resin is used in a two-photon lithography 3D printer to fabricate ultrashort chip-scale spiral optical waveguide amplifiers in the telecommunication C-band. The fabricated amplifier exhibited a relative gain of 7.7 dB for a 1.5 mm long spiral waveguide, with a pump power operating below 130 mW. The subcentimeter length of the amplifiers enables high small-signal gain to be achieved with low pump power for amplifying signals in the microwatt range, making them suitable for integration into chip-scale devices.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Article that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Nano Materials copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society. To access the final published article, see ACS Articles on Request: https://pubs.acs.org/page/authors/sharing.htm#aor
Publisher Keywords:	two-photon polymerization, polymer waveguide amplifier, rare-earth nanoparticles, surface functionalization, 3D printing
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics T Technology > T Technology (General)
Departments:	School of Science & Technology School of Science & Technology > Department of Engineering
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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