Abstract
In this work we report on the time and spatial resolved fluorescence of Neodymium ions in LiNbO(3) channel waveguides fabricated by Reverse Proton Exchange. The analysis of the fluorescence decay curves obtained with a sub-micrometric resolution has evidenced the presence of a relevant fluorescence quenching inside the channel waveguide. From the comparison between diffusion simulations and the spatial dependence of the (4)F(3/2) fluorescence decay rate we have concluded that the observed fluorescence quenching can be unequivocally related to the presence of H+ ions in the LiNbO(3) lattice. Nevertheless, it turns out that Reverse Proton Exchange guarantees a fluorescence quenching level significantly lower than in similar configurations based on Proton Exchange waveguides. This fluorescence quenching has been found to be accompanied by a relevant red-shift of the (4)F(3/2)?(4)I(9/2) fluorescence band.
Highlights
LiNbO3 is a well-known and widely used crystal because of its good electro-optical, acoustico-optical and nonlinear properties
The Time Resolved Confocal Luminescence has been applied to the study the spectroscopic properties of Neodymium ions in Reverse Proton Exchange channel waveguides
We have found that the proton incorporation leads to a remarkable modification in the4F3/2 metastable state life time
Summary
LiNbO3 is a well-known and widely used crystal because of its good electro-optical, acoustico-optical and nonlinear properties The combination of such properties with the laser gain of Nd3+ ions in the same medium has permitted the construction of many interesting systems including self Q-switched, self mode-locked and self frequency converters laser devices [1]. RPE procedure has been reported to lead to low losses buried and symmetric LiNbO3 channel waveguides able to confine the two principal (orthogonal) polarizations [7,8,9,10] These facts make RPE LiNbO3 channel waveguides of major interest in the realization of rare earth doped lasing configurations as well as highly efficient one and two dimensional nonlinear devices due to the good matching of the interacting modes field profiles within the waveguide [11]. The information extracted in this way is of great relevance from the application point of view (laser performance is determined by the spectroscopic properties of Nd3+ ions) and from a fundamental point of view if a relation between spectroscopic changes and the proton distribution can be established
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