Ultrabroadband near-infrared emission from Bi-doped Li2O–Al2O3–SiO2 glass

A broad near-infrared emission of Bi-doped lithium alumino silicate glasses has been investigated. It was found that the peak wavelength and width of the emission from the glasses could be controlled drastically by the excitation wavelength. The emission spectrum had the broadest bandwidth of more than 500nm under 900nm excitation. The emission consisted of two Gaussian peaks and the stimulated emission cross sections at the peaks were calculated as 7.3×10−21 and 2.3×10−20cm2. The lifetime was almost independent of temperature up to 350K, indicating that the emission from the Bi-doped lithium alumino silicate glass has strong resistance to the thermal quenching.