Rare earth ions can easily be incorporated into fluoride glasses in moderate to large concentrations, and, due to their low phonon energy, these glasses appear to have many advantages over oxide glasses as hosts for rare earth ions used in optical amplifiers and lasers. We have therefore investigated the luminescence and radiative lifetimes of Pr3+, Pr3+/Yb3+ and Pr3+/Yb3+/Lu3+ doped bulk AlF3-based glass samples as a function of rare earth ion concentration. Initial results show a lifetime of about 150 µs for the 1G4 → 3H4 state and a 20% decrease with the addition of Yb3+. In addition we find that the addition of 2 wt% of Yb increases the fluorescence of Pr3+ at 1.32 microns by a factor of 7 when excited with 488 nm radiation. The effect of Yb3+ and Lu3+ on the 1G4 → 3H5, 1D2 → 3F4 and 1D2 → 1G4 transitions of praseodymium would be presented.

Rare-earth ions can easily be incorporated into fluoride glasses in moderate to large concentrations. Because these glasses possess low fundamental frequencies, they appear to have many advantages over oxide glasses as hosts for rare-earth ions used in optical amplifiers and lasers. We have investigated the optical properties (fluorescence, absorption, and excited-state lifetimes) of AlF(3)-based glass doped with Pr(3+), Yb(3+) and Lu(3+). The effects of different dopant levels on the optical properties of this glass system have also been investigated. These results are compared to those obtained for the same ions in other glass hosts.

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Rare earth ions can easily be incorporated into fluoride glasses in moderate to large concentrations and, due to their low phonon energy, these glasses appear to have many advantages over oxide glasses as hosts for rare earth ions used in optical amplifiers and lasers. We have therefore investigated the optical properties of Pr3+, Pr3+/Yb3+ and Pr3+/Yb3+/Lu3+ doped bulk AIF3-based glass samples as a function of rare earth ion concentration. We find that the addition of 2 wt% of Yb increases the fluorescence of Pr3+ at 1.32 μm by a factor of 35 when excited with 488 nm radiation. The fluorescence intensity and excited state lifetimes are found to be comparable to those measured for Pr in a ZBLAN host. Since it has also been demonstrated that optical fibers drawn from AIF3-based glasses exhibit relatively low loss (< 0.05 dB/m) and posses superior chemical durability compared to other fluotide glasses, it is possible that AIF3 glasses may become the fluoride glass of choice for practical fiber laser and amplifier applications.

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