Er~(3+)-and Tm~(3+)-Containing Ultra-Transparent Oxyfluoride-Based Glass Ceramics for Wavelength Division Multiplexing Optical Amplifiers

摘要

Ultratransparent glass ceramics activated with thulium and erbium ions were fabricated.The precursor oxyfluoride glass was 32SiO_2 centre dot 9AIO_(1.5)centre dot 31.5CdF_2 centre dot 18.5PbF_2 centre dot 5.5ZnF_2 centre dot 3.5ReO_(1.5)with Re=Tm or Er.Upon heat treatment,Er~(3+)and Tm~(3+)nucleate the growth of nanocrystalline beta-PbF_2,which acts as a host for rare-earth ions.The spectroscopic properties of the thulium and erbium ions,studied via UV-VIS-NIR absorption and luminescence spectroscopy,show that most of the active ions are embedded in the crystalline phase.From the absorption measurement,we extracted the cross sections of Tm~(3+)ions embedded in the crystalline and glassy phases.The comparison between the experimental lifetimes before and after thermal treatment gave as a result that the ceramming process increases the quantum efficiency of the Tm~(3+)electronic transitions.In the case of Er~(3+)-activated glass ceramics,the ~4I_(13/2)=~4I_(15/2)telecom transition broadens and flattens.