Preparation and Optical Properties of Er^3＋-Doped Gadolinium Borosilicate Glasses

Er3 -doped Gd2 O3 -SiO2 -B2 O3 -Na2O glasses were prepared, and formation range of glass of Gd2 O3 -SiO2 -B2O3 system was experimentally obtained. It is found that the glass phase can be formed only when the content of SiO2 is 0～50%(molar fraction), Gd2O3 is 0～30%(molar fraction) and B2 O3 is above 20%(molar fraction) in this glass system. The glass can also be obtained but becomes translucent at the contents of 60%(molar fraction) SiO2 and 30% Gd2O3 , or at the contents of 60%(molar fraction) SiO2 and 30%(molar fraction) B2O3. There is no glass phase formed in other glass components. Glass forming ability for Gd2O3 content of 10%, was characterized by the value of β, the parameter of crystallization tendency, which is 0.32～1.76, obtained from the differential thermal analysis. The absorption and emission cross section, the J-O parameters Ωt(2,4,6) and radiative transition probabilities were calculated by using the theory of McCumber and Judd-Ofelt. The emission properties at 1.5 μm of the samples are discussed with the product of full width at half maximum and stimulated emission cross section. It can be seen that the value of the FWHM×σepeak product in the prepared glass is more than those of germanate, silicate and phosphate glasses. Furthermore, the maximum value of the product among these glasses reported in this work is close to that of oxyfluoride silicate glass. Therefore, the Er3 -doped gadolinium borosilicate glass in this paper is a candidate for broadband erbium doped fiber amplifiers.

Preparation and Optical Properties of Er3+ -Doped Gadolinium Borosilicate Glasses