Novel oxyfluoride glass and transparent glass-ceramics for fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers

Transparent glass-ceramics containing nano-crystals were prepared by controlled heat-treatment of conventionally melt-quenched NaF-YF3-Al2O3-SiO2 oxyfluoride glass. The precipitated crystallites were composed of only cubic NaYF4 and the average diameter was estimated as less than 10 nm from the X-ray diffraction analysis. The crystallites were so small that the transparency of the glass was kept after crystallization. NaYF4 has a crystal structure of a fluorite type that cation sites were randomly occupied by Na+ and Y3+. It is expected that the Y3+ sites can be substituted to other rare-earth ions which have the similar ionic radii. We have been prepared Tb3+ and Yb3+ co-doped glass and glass-ceramics. Green fluorescence was observed when the glass and glass-ceramics were excited by a 974 nm laser. The up-conversion intensity was enhanced by the crystallization.

[1]  Daqin Chen,et al.  Tunable red-green upconversion luminescence in novel transparent glass ceramics containing Er: NaYF4 nanocrystals. , 2006, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[2]  C. A. Millar,et al.  Upconversion pumped green lasing in erbium doped fluorozirconate fibre , 1991 .

[3]  Feng Liu,et al.  Investigation on crystallization kinetics and microstructure of novel transparent glass ceramics containing Nd:NaYF4 nano-crystals , 2007 .

[4]  T. Yamashita,et al.  Amplification and Lasing Characteristics of Tb3+-doped Fluoride Fiber in the 0.54 µm Band , 2007 .

[5]  F. Liu,et al.  Spectroscopic calculation of NaYF4 contained transparent glass ceramics doped with different content of Nd3 , 2007 .

[6]  P. Venkateswarlu,et al.  Two-step upconversion luminescence in Yb:Tb:YSGG crystal , 1996 .

[7]  N. Menyuk,et al.  NaYF4 : Yb,Er—an efficient upconversion phosphor , 1972 .

[8]  Homer E. KlSSlNGER.  Reaction Kinetics in Differential Thermal Analysis , 1957 .

[9]  H. Poignant,et al.  Tunable green upconversion erbium fibre laser , 1992 .

[10]  G. Atkins,et al.  Photodarkening in Tb(3+)-doped phosphosilicate and germanosilicate optical fibers. , 1994, Optics letters.

[11]  Junichi Ohwaki,et al.  New transparent vitroceramics codoped with Er3+ and Yb3+ for efficient frequency upconversion , 1993 .

[12]  Takenobu Suzuki,et al.  Crystallization kinetics and spectroscopic investigations on Tb3+ and Yb3+ codoped glass ceramics containing CaF2 nanocrystals , 2007 .

[13]  K. Sun,et al.  FUNDAMENTAL CONDITION OF GLASS FORMATION , 1947 .

[14]  F. Auzel.  Upconversion and anti-Stokes processes with f and d ions in solids. , 2004, Chemical reviews.

[15]  Takenobu Suzuki,et al.  Intense ultraviolet emission from Tb3+ and Yb3+ codoped glass ceramic containing CaF2 nanocrystals , 2007 .

[16]  F. W. Ostermayer,et al.  Cooperative Energy Transfer from Yb3+ to Tb3+ in YF3 , 1970 .