Influence of Orbital Hybridization on Kerr Nonlinearity of a Heavy Metal Borate Glass: Scaling of Polarizability and the Imaginary Contribution of Optical Susceptibility

Abstract

Photonics properties of glasses can be designed by controlling their complex Kerr nonlinearity. Chemical structure and bonding properties are considered as the origin of glass third-order susceptibilities. Investigation of the role of orbital hybridization on the glass electronic polarizability and third-order susceptibility is carried out. Thus, series of heavy metal lead borate glass of the composition 0.25B2O3–0.75PbO is prepared by melt quenching technique. Orbital hybridization, as a linear combination for valence electron wave functions of p- and d-block elements, is obtained through structural co-substitution of very small contents of Cr2O3 and/or SeO2, by B2O3. It get succeed to tune the glass nonlinear optical characteristics such as; the complex components of third-order susceptibility. Scaling roles describing the relations between oxide ion polarizability and index of refraction and between imaginary part of third-order susceptibility and band gap energy are proposed. The glasses exhibit zero-dispersion wavelength at 1.55 μm band which is needed for telecommunication devices. The polarizability approach is applied to analyze and explain the obtained glass properties.