Spectroscopic and laser properties of Nd3+ in fluoride glasses

Abstract

Abstract In the last few years an increasing interest has arisen in the study of heavy-metal fluoride glasses related to passive and active optical applications materials. Up to now all glass lasers have used trivalent lanthanides as active ions. Neodymium-doped glasses are by far the most widely investigated systems. The spectroscopic properties of Nd3+ are dependent upon the chemical composition of the host glass. In this work we present a brief review of the optical properties of Nd3+ ions in heavy metal and transition metal fluoride glasses. This includes radiative and nonradiative transition probabilities, emission cross-sections, peak wavelengths and linewidths of the 4 F 3 2 → 4 I 11 2 laser transition, and Nd-Nd energy transfer. This is followed by a short discussion on the site-selective spectroscopy of Eu3+ in zirconium-barium-lanthanum and barium-indium-gallium fluoride glasses. Finally, we report a study of the laser properties of Nd3+ doped fluoride glass BlGaZLuTMn (30BaF2-l8InF3-l2GaF3-20ZnF2-9LuF3-6ThF4 -4MnF2-lNdF3 mol% composition) pumped by flashlamps. As far as we know this is the first time laser action has been obtained in bulk in this glass. From these studies the influence of site-dependent effects on the time-resolved stimulated emission properties of Nd3+ ions is also discussed.