8 - Rare-earth-doped germanate and tellurite glasses: Laser, waveguide, and ultrafast device applications

Abstract

The search for rare-earth-doped glasses exhibiting large linear and nonlinear optical properties is motivated by their applications in lasers, optical amplifiers, color displays, and ultrafast devices. In particular, germanate and tellurite glasses are good candidates for these applications due to their wide transmission window (400–5000nm), high refractive index (~2.0), large chemical durability, and low phonon energy (800cm−1). These glasses have also proven to be adequate hosts for rare-earth ions and for the nucleation of metallic nanoparticles (NPs).