Erbium-doped multicomponent glasses manufactured by the sol-gel method

摘要

A multicomponent particulate gel includes 80-100 mole % SiO₂, 1-10 mole % X₂O, 1-10 mole % YO, 1-15 mole % Al₂O₃, and 0.1-5.0 weight % Er₂O₃,where X represents lithium, sodium, potassium, or mixtures thereof and Y represents calcium, barium, magnesium, lead or mixtures thereof, and the ratio of Al₂O₃ to (X₂O+YO) is between about 0.9 and about 2.5. A process of manufacturing the gel includes hydrolyzing alkoxide derivatives of silicon, aluminum, erbium, lithium, sodium, potassium, calcium, barium, magnesium, lead or mixtures thereof in water to generate their respective hydroxide derivatives; polymerizing the hydroxide derivatives to produce a gel slurry comprising an essentially silica network; and drying the gel slurry to produce the gel.