Structure and Nonlinear Optical Properties of Lanthanide Borate Glasses

Abstract

The third–order nonlinear optical susceptibility, χ(3), of lanthanide (lanthanum, praseodymium, neodymium, and samarium) borate glasses has been measured by the third harmonic generation method. The structure of the present glass system has been studied by infrared and Raman spectroscopic methods. The network structures of the present Ln2O3–B2O3 glasses have been confirmed to be basically similar to each other. Praseodymium, neodymium, and samarium borate glasses exhibit χ(3) values that are larger than lanthanum borate glasses, because of the optical resonance effect, in accordance with the f–f transition. Especially, the χ(3) value for 30Pr2O3·70B2O3 glass is 1.8 × 10−12 esu, which is a factor of ∼60 larger than that of SiO2 glass. This striking enhancement of χ(3) is mainly attributed to the large transition moment to the first excitation state.