Er
3+
-doped Y
2
O
3
nanoparticles
(NPs) are used to synthesize transparent ceramics by hot isostatic
pressing. Two sizes of NPs are studied, and 40 nm NPs show better
performance than 200 nm NPs in transparent ceramics syntheses. The
axial optical transmission through millimeter thickness of the prepared
ceramics is about 80% in the wavelength range of 1000–2000
nm. For a sample with 11.5 ppm Er
3+
, the inhomogeneous
broadening of the
4
I
15/2
to
4
I
13/2
transition for the C
2
site is as low as 0.42
GHz (full width at half-maximum), and the homogeneous line width is
11.2 kHz at a temperature of 2.5 K and in a 0.65 T magnetic field.
This indicates that a majority of Er
3+
ions are sitting
in sites with very low structural disorder.
Carbon‐doped fused silica glass is fabricated by consolidating zinc stearate‐doped porous silica soot blank. The carbon doping concentration is tunable and a maximum of ~0.3 wt% carbon can be incorporated into densified silica. Carbon dopants assemble into nanorod structures which are uniformly distributed inside glass. Transmission electron microscopy electron energy loss spectroscopy and Raman studies identify that carbon dopants are a mixture of nanosized silicon carbide and multiple layer graphene, which produce strong and flat optical absorption in a wide wavelength range of 400‐2500 nm. The electrical resistivity of silica glass is reduced by about 15 orders of magnitude with 0.28 wt% carbon doping.
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