Sol-gel method preparation silica gel-glasses, doped trivalent rare-earth ions for fiber optics applications

摘要

Optical materials prepared by the sol-gel process are of current technological interest. Sol-gel silica glasses doped with rare-earth (RE~(3+)) ions are an important class of optical materials with applications including solid-state lasers, optical waveguides, fiber amplifiers and devices for optical communications. In this paper, we describe the preparation of rare-earth-doped silica-gel glasses and discuss the infrared properties of silica structure as a function of heat treatment. The samples were prepared from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), water, ethanol, fumed silica and soluble in a water or ethanol the salts of the RE~(3+)(Er~(3+), Nd~(3+), Sm~(3+), Pr~(3+), Eu~(3+)) elements.