Laser action and upconversion of Nd3+ in tellurite bulk glass

Spectral study of the stimulated emission of Nd^3+ in fluorotellurite bulk glass

“…We have obtained a value of 4x10 −20 cm 2 for the stimulated emission cross-section, which is higher than the ones obtained by other authors in tellurite glasses [9] and in fairly good agreement with the value obtained from the absorption and emission data (Table 1) The laser output spectra were recorded as a function of pumping wavelength along the 4 I 9/2 → 4 F 5/2 absorption band. As can be seen in Fig.…”

“…Until now, neodymium-doped silicate and phosphate-based bulk glasses have been the most widely used laser glasses due to their good optical, thermal, and mechanical properties. Laser emission has also been obtained in other bulk glasses doped with Nd 3+ such as fluorides [2][3][4], chalcogenides [5], aluminosilicates [6], germanates [7], and tellurite glasses [8][9][10].…”

On the origin of bichromatic laser emission in Nd^3+-doped fluoride glasses

“…It is also worth mentioning the abrupt extinction of the laser emission at the long pumping wavelengths. It is important to remark that the same kind of laser experiments performed by our group in other Nd 3+ -doped glass hosts such as oxyfluorides [25], fluoroarsenates, and tellurites [26] showed a different behavior with no significant changes in the laser emission spectra when the pumping wavelength was varied whatever the pumping level used. As an example Fig.…”

Laser emission of a Nd-doped mixed tellurite and zinc oxide glass

“…In order to minimize the nonradiative multiphonon relaxations and optimize the quantum efficiency of the 4 F 3∕2 → 4 I 11∕2 emission of Nd 3 , it is also suitable to work with Nd 3 -doped host materials with low phonon frequencies and low contents of OH impurities. In that sense, laser emission of Nd 3 in glasses has been reported in fluorides [11][12][13], chalcogenides [14], aluminosilicates [15], germanates [16], and, as just mentioned, in tellurite glasses [3][4][5][6][7]. Among oxi-tellurites, the TeO 2 -ZnO glass which is considered here in the present article combines good mechanical stability, chemical durability, high linear and nonlinear refractive indices, together with low phonon energies (∼750 cm −1 ), a wide transmission window (0.4-6 μm), and a high rare-earth solubility [10,17,18].…”

“…This is the case for the instance of the recently developed CaF 2 laser crystal codoped with Nd 3 and Lu 3 or Y 3 ions, because of the conjunction of good thermo-mechanical properties, typical of crystals, and broadband spectral properties, typical of glasses [2]. This is also the case for some Nd-doped nonlinear tellurite glasses [3][4][5][6][7][8][9], because of a very interesting combination of large nonlinear refractive index (25 times larger than that of silica) and wide transmittance range, and also because of a low maximum phonon frequency which allows rare-earth ion laser emissions in a wide spectral range [10].…”