Optical Properties of Doped Sol-Gel Silica Glasses.

摘要

Sol-gel optical composites have been developed and characterised for potential applications in optics, lasers, nonlinear optics and optoelectronics. Post-doped xerogels have been index matched by in-situ polymerisation of monomer to form inorganic-organic composites of low scatter and high optical quality. Characterisation of microstructure has been made by visible and IR absorption and Raman Spectroscopy and optical quality by attenuation and scatter measurement. Doping techniques have been optimised using hypercritical drying and vacuum impregnation, and doping distribution monitored by laser-induced fluorescence. One-tenth wavelength surfaces have been formed by novel optical polishing. Organic molecular dopants have been tested in laser and nonlinear systems. Initial third harmonic generation and Z-scan measurements have shown the potential for saturable absorption and optical limiting.