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Bismuth (Bi) -doped silicate glass for future photonics applications was proposed by Y. Fujimoto et al. in 2001 [1]. And
its broadband fluorescence characteristic at 1.3um band was demonstrated for the first time. From this report, several
studies such as clarifying the fluorescence mechanism, surveying the optical properties of Bi-doped glass with various
host glass materials and so on have been done. However, there was no report on fabricating Bi-doped silicate glass fiber
(BiDF) for the demonstration of optical amplification and laser oscillation. In 2005, Haruna et al. succeeded in
fabricating the BiDF by Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD) method for the first time, and evaluated its
absorption and fluorescent characteristics [2]. In this report, the absorption bands around 0.5 um, 0.7 um, 0.8 um and
1.0um were shown, and the very wide fluorescence band with a FWHM of 192 nm centered at 1.06um was also
indicated. The background loss of the fiber was as low as <0.05 dB/m at 1.55 um because of the MCVD method that is
well-established method for the conventional optical fibers. Furthermore, the 1.3 um band amplification using the BiDF
prepared by the similar MCVD method was reported by V. V. Dvoyrin et al. in 2005 [3], and the laser oscillation by this
fiber was also demonstrated in 2006 [4]. In this paper, a current research progress on the Bi-doped glasses and fibers is
reviewed. By looking at the optical properties such as fluorescence characteristics, future possible applications are
explained and its fluorescence mechanism is also discussed.
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