Excited state absorption in the gahnite glass ceramics and its parent glass doped with chromium

Abstract

We report on comparison of the basic spectroscopy and first of all excited state absorption (ESA) characteristics measured for the chromium doped pink gahnite glass ceramics and its green parent glass doped with chromium. The ESA spectrum of the ceramics is rather predictable and reveals peaks which can be ascribed to doublet–doublet transitions, typical for the Cr 3+ ions in the high crystal field, and is additionally affected by the ground state absorption bleaching. Unlike the ceramics, the parent glass, being a low-field material, reveals quartet–quartet ESA, typical for the Cr 3+ ions in the low crystal field. The ESA spectrum apart of chromium-related features and bleaching of the chromium ground state absorption, is connected with other possible centers of the host. Based on basic spectroscopic data we create configuration coordinate diagrams for both cases, predict the shape of the expected ESA spectra and compare them with measured ones. A reasonable agreement has been achieved.