SPECTROSCOPIC AND LASER PROPERTIES OF ND3+ IN FLUORIDE GLASSES

In the last few years an increasing interest has arisen in the study o f heavy-metal fluoride glasses related to passive and active optical a pplications materials. Up to now all glass lasers have used trivalent lanthanides as active ions. Neodymium-doped glasses are by far the mos t widely investigated systems. The spectroscopic properties of Nd3+ ar e dependent upon the chemical composition of the host glass. In this w ork we present a brief review of the optical properties of Nd3+ ions i n heavy metal and transition metal fluoride glasses. This includes rad iative and nonradiative transition probabilities, emission cross-secti ons, peak wavelengths and linewidths of the F-4(3/2)-->I-4(11/2) laser transition, and Nd-Nd energy transfer, This is followed by a short di scussion on the site-selective spectroscopy of EU(3+) in zirconium-bar ium-lanthanum and barium-indium-gallium fluoride glasses. Finally, we report a study of the laser properties of Nd3+ doped fluoride glass Bl GaZLuTMn -12GaF(3)-20ZnF(2)-9LuF(3)-6ThF(4)-4MnF(2)-1NdF(3) mol% compo sition) pumped by flashlamps. As far as we know this is the first time laser action has been obtained in bulk in this glass. From these stud ies the influence of site-dependent effects on the time-resolved stimu lated emission properties of Nd3+ ions is also discussed.