Optical Properties of Tm(3+) Ions in Alkali Germanate Glass

Tm-doped alkali germanate glass is investigated for use as a laser material. Spectroscopic investigations of bulk Tm-doped germanate glass are reported for the absorption, emission and luminescence decay. Tm:germanate shows promise as a fiber laser when pumped with 0.792 m diodes because of low phonon energies. Spectroscopic analysis indicates low nonradiative quenching and pulsed laser performance studies confirm this prediction by showing a quantum efficiency of 1.69

Bismuth-Doped Glass Microsphere Lasers

In this work, a hybrid structure consisting of a multicomponent germanate glass microsphere containing bismuth as a gain medium is proposed and presented. The bismuth-doped germanate glass microspheres were fabricated from a glass fiber tip with no precipitation of the bismuth metal. Coupling with a fiber taper, the bismuth-doped microsphere single-mode laser was observed to lase at around 1305.8 nm using 808 nm excitation. The low threshold of absorbed pump power at 215 μWmakes this microlaser appealing for various applications, including tunable lasers for a range of purposes in telecommunication, biomedical, and optical information processing

Enhanced optical properties of Tm³⁺ in f co-doped lead germanate glasses for fibre device applications

The effect on structure and property of adding fluoride into Tm3+ doped lead-germanate glass was established and verified experimentally. It was found that up to 10 mol% of fluoride could be introduced into our original lead-germanate composition while retaining the high thermal stability ideal for fibre fabrication. Much improved spectroscopic features, namely increased fluorescent lifetimes from 3H4 and 3F4 levels in Tm3+ with increasing fluorine content, were observed. At the same time it was found that the radiative properties of Tm3+ were left unchanged by fluoride addition, indicating that reduced multiphonon relaxation was responsible for the increased fluorescent lifetimes. This was well explained and foreseen by our established structure-property relation in terms of adding fluorine to the glass. In conclusion, fluoro-germanate glass shows advantages over germanate glass in optical properties and over fluoride glass in chemical and mechanical properties for practical fiber device applications. [Presentation slides

Crystal growth in fused solvent systems

The successful nucleation of bismuth germanate, B12GeO20 on a high quality seed and the growth of regions of single crystals of the same orientation of the seed are reported. Lead germanate, Pb5Ge3O11 was also identified as a ferroelectric crystal with large electrooptic and nonlinear optic constants. Solvent criteria, solvent/development, and crystal growth are discussed, and recommendations for future studies are included

Replacement of glass-former B2O3 by GeO2 in an amorphous host evidenced by optical methods

Two completely different glass-host matrices containing lead, i.e. borate and germanate glasses doped with erbium were studied. The replacement of glass-former B2O3 by GeO2 in an amorphous host was evidenced by optical methods. The luminescence decay from the⁴I13/2 upper laser state of Er³⁺ ions is relatively short, whereas the up-converted emission signal is reduced definitely in borate glass containing lead due to its high B-O stretching vibrations. The results indicate that germanate glasses containing lead are promising for near-infrared luminescence and up-conversion applications

Tm3+/Ho3+ co-doped germanate glass and double-clad optical fiber for broadband emission and lasing above 2 μm

In this paper, a 2 μm broadband emission under 796 nm laser diode excitation in low phonon energy GeO2-Ga2O3-BaO glass system is co-doped with 0.7Tm2O3/(0.07-0.7)Ho2O3 (mol%). The widest emission band (where the Tm3+ → Ho3+ energy transfer efficiency is 63%) was obtained for 0.7Tm2O3/0.15Ho2O3 co-doped glass from which a double-clad optical fiber was realized and investigated. Optimization of Tm3+/Ho3+ concentration enabled the acquisition of broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in double-clad optical fiber with a full width at half maximum (FWHM): 377 nm and 662 nm for 3 dB and 10 dB bandwidth, respectively. ASE spectrum is a result of the superposition of (Tm3+: 3H4 →Η3F4) 1.45 μm, (Tm3+: 3F4 → 3H6) 1.8 μm and (Ho3+:5I7 → 5I8) 2 μm emission bands. Hence, highly rare-earth co-doped germanate glass is characterized by a remarkably broader ASE spectrum than silica and tellurite fibers showed promising lasing properties for their further application in tunable and dual wavelength lasers

Rare earth-doped phosphate and germanate glasses for near-infrared power amplifiers and laser sources

7siIn recent decades, multicomponent oxide glasses have demonstrated the capability to outperform silica glass as host material for emitters in the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength region. In particular, phosphate and germanate glass compositions can be doped with high amounts of rare earth ions (up to ten times more ions per unit volume with respect to silica) and thus allow the possibility of realizing compact optical amplifiers and fiber lasers able to minimize non-linear effects. We report on the recent advances regarding Yb-Er co-doped phosphate glasses for power amplifiers and Tm-doped germanate glasses for NIR laser sources. Phosphate glasses offer an interesting platform for the realization of optical power amplifiers for ns pulsed sources at 1.5 μm wavelength, by using Er3+ ions as activators and Yb3+ ions as sensitizers. They have been properly engineered to be suitable for crystal-free fiber drawing and subsequently shaped into rods and optical fibers for testing as coherent sources for LIDAR systems. With the aim to develop new compact amplifiers operating in the 2 um wavelength region, novel germanate glass compositions have been developed. Thermal analysis and preliminary fiber drawing test reveal suitable glass thermal stability against crystallization and good glass homogeneity towards the manufacture of performing fiber amplifier.openopenDiego Pugliese, Joris Lousteau, Nadia G. Boetti, Fedia Ben Slimen, Davide Janner, Duccio Gallichi-Nottiani, Daniel MilanesePugliese, Diego; Lousteau, Joris; Boetti, Nadia G.; Ben Slimen, Fedia; Janner, DAVIDE LUCA; GALLICHI NOTTIANI, Duccio; Milanese, Danie

2-.mu.m fiber amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source

A 2-.mu.m fiber Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) source provides a wide emission bandwidth and improved spectral stability/purity for a given output power. The fiber ASE source is formed from a heavy metal oxide multicomponent glass selected from germanate, tellurite and bismuth oxides and doped with high concentrations, 0.5-15 wt. %, thulium oxides (Tm.sub.2O.sub.3) or 0.1-5 wt% holmium oxides (Ho.sub.2O.sub.3) or mixtures thereof. The high concentration of thulium dopants provide highly efficient pump absorption and high quantum efficiency. Co-doping of Tm and Ho can broaden the ASE spectrum