Effect of LnF3 (Ln = Y, La, Gd and Yb) on the properties of ZnF2-ZrF4-AIF3 glasses

摘要

Since the discovery of fluorozirconate glasses by Poulain et cil. in 1975 [I], numerous fluoride glass systems have been developed. However, only a few fluoride glasses, e.g. ZBLAN [2] and IZSBGdN [3], are considered to be stable enough to be used as host materials for upconversion fibre lasers and fibre amplifiers. The common feature of these stable glasses is that they contain rare earth fluorides. Rare earth ions are considered to play very important roles in fluoride glass formation [4]. Poulain et cil. studied the physicochemical properties of ZrF4, ThF4 and A1F3-based fluoride glasses doped with rare earth ions [4-7]. However, few studies have been made of the effect of rare earth fluorides on the properties of glasses in other systems, and even for ZrF4 system glasses, questions such as "how and why does the glass-forming ability vary with the addition of rare earth fluoride?" are still pending. A great amount of research is necessary in order to answer these questions.