Ytterbium doped glass-ceramics for photonics

Abstract

The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of heat treatment on the spectroscopic properties of Yb3+ doped phosphate and tellurite glasses. Glasses with compositions (100-x) (0.75NaPO3-0.25CaF2)-x Yb2O3 and (100-x) (0.70TeO2-0.20ZnO-0.10Bi2O3)-x Yb2O3 were prepared using standard melt-quenching technique. The thermal, physical, structural and spectroscopic properties of these glasses were investigated. In order to induce crystallization in the glass medium, the glasses were heat treated for 17h at temperature 20°C higher than their respective glass transition temperatures to create the nuclei followed by a thermal treatment for 1h at different temperatures to grow the nuclei into crystals. Spectroscopic and structural properties of heat-treated glasses were then characterized. Growth of different crystalline structures in the glass medium was observed after heat treatment, the composition of which was found to depend on the heat treatment temperature. An increase in the temperature was found to lead to the growth of more diverse crystalline structures. It was found that the compositions of different crystalline structures affect the spectroscopic properties of the Yb3+ ions in the glass samples. In this study Yb3+ doped phosphate and tellurite glass-ceramics were shown to be promising as lasing materials. Further research needs to be done to investigate different heat treatment techniques for optimizing crystal growth and enhancing spectroscopic properties, while maintaining transparency of the glass-ceramic.