Waveguide produced by fiber on glass method using Er-doped tellurite glass

We report the fabrication of waveguides using the fiber on glass (FOG) method. Taking advantage of a Thermal Mechanical Analyzer (Shimadzu TMA-50), we were able to produce a new type of waveguide by coupling an erbium doped fiber core onto a planar glass substrate. Both optical fiber core and substrate were fabricated from tellurite glass. Important thermal characteristics of the substrate and fiber like the transition temperature T_g, the temperature for the crystallization onset T_x and the maximum crystallization temperature T_c were determined by Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA). The thermal expansion coefficient of the tellurite glass was determined by Thermal Mechanical Analysis (TMA).     

Fabrication of heavy metal fluoride glass, optical planar waveguides by hot-spin casting

Hot-spin casting is further investigated using a customised rig for making optical planar waveguides from inorganic-compound-glasses. The rig enables a controlled mass of core-glass, held above its liquidus, to be gravity-cast onto the top surface of a spinning cladding-glass substrate that has been pre-heated to around its glass transformation temperature. Spinning encourages the cast liquid to spread as a film over the top surface of the glass substrate. The mass of liquid cast is controlled by the timed opening of an orifice in the base of the core-glass melt-crucible. The resulting step index, slab optical waveguides are annealed, then cooled to room temperature; they comprise a higher refractive index, glass film core, on top of a lower refractive index glass substrate cladding. The glass film core is air-clad. at its upper surface. The process is applied to two heavy metal fluoride core/clad. glass pairs, namely ZBLANPb/ZBLAN and ZBLALiYPb/HBLANY (where ZBLANLiYPb is ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃-AlF₃-LiF-YF₃-PbF₂ and H is HfF₄) to give waveguides of small and large numerical aperture (NA) (e.g. at 643.8 nm wavelength, NA is 0.18 and 0.33, respectively). The Hot-Spin-Cast waveguides exhibit a guiding region whose top surface tends to be parallel to the upper surface of the underlying substrate. However, flatness of the top surface of the guiding region is limited by the flatness of the top surface of the underlying substrate. Multimode slab waveguiding is demonstrated for both NA waveguide types for glass film cores of depths ?10 μm.     

Planar chalcogenide glass waveguides for IR evanescent wave sensors

Multi-layered chalcogenide glass waveguide structures have been fabricated for evanescent wave sensing of bio-toxins and other sensor applications. Thin films of Ge containing chalcogenides have been deposited onto Si substrates, with a-GeSe₂ as the lower cladding layer and a-GeSbSe as the core layer, to form the slab waveguide. The absence of a defined upper cladding layer enhances the leakage necessary to sense the target molecules. Modal refractive index is estimated from the m-lines. It is shown that photo-induced structural changes by 808 nm laser light in the core layer selectively enhance refractive index in the exposed regions, and thus provide a convenient method to form channel waveguides. A thin layer of Au has been deposited on top of the core layer for the attachment of linker molecules for biosensor application; ATR confirms this.     

Mechanical strength improvement of glass by ion exchange in the solid state

Ion exchange of glasses in the solid state has been studied. Two salt systems have been chosen: KCl---ZnCl₂ and KCl---KNO₃. Mechanical strength has been measured after heat treatment. It has been shown that with the KCl---KNO₃ system one can get better results than with the KCl---ZnCl₂ system.     

Microanalytical study of Er-doped LiNbO3 crystals obtained by Er–Li ion exchange

Erbium-doped lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) crystals were produced by Er–Li ion exchange (IE) process. The role of the process parameters such as exchange time and temperature, crystal cut direction, composition and heating rate of the Er ions liquid source was investigated by means of secondary ion mass spectrometry, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and microluminescence techniques. We demonstrated that Er effective diffusion coefficient is two orders of magnitude greater with respect to the thermal diffusion from Er film. We observed that no Li deficient phase can be achieved and that active Er ions are homogeneously incorporated in the substrate. The method is suitable for Er doping of LiNbO₃ crystals at relative low temperature (from 570°C to 650°C).     

Influence of relaxation on migration of ions during ion exchange by electrolysis in glass

After the first electrolysis of an ordinary sheet glass causing Na⁺ → K⁺ ion exchange below its strain point, the glass was subjected to the second electrolysis under the reverse electric field. In the second electrolysis, some of the potassium ions were removed from the previously ion-exchanged layer, while potassium ions were simultaneously introduced into the opposite surface (the anode side). The initial resistivity and the slope of the straight line expressing the relation of resistivity to the quantity of electricity passed through at the second electrolysis were determined numerically. These observations agreed fairly well with theoretical values obtained by taking stress relaxation into account.     

Source of optical loss in tellurite glass fibers

Non-silica-based optical fibers generally suffer from high optical loss and low strength, whereas they have other optical properties superior to that of silica for certain device applications. Tellurite glasses offer one of the best compromises among optical, mechanical, and processing properties. The goal of this study was to achieve low loss tellurite fibers for active and non-linear applications. In this paper, single mode tellurite fibers doped with KNbO₃ were made with losses varying from 1.3 to 6 dB/m. The sources of loss were striation, dust particles, and bubbles. The decrease of striation was observed by employing lower pouring temperature, and the increase of fiber strength was achieved by hydrochloric acid etching of preform.     

Nano-composite soda lime silicate glass prepared using silver ion exchange

Commercial soda lime silicate glasses have been subjected to ion exchange at different temperatures ranging from 320 to 500 °C in a molten mixture of AgNO₃ and NaNO₃ with molar ratio of 10:90, 02:98 and 50:50 for different time periods ranging from 40 to 180 min. Optical and structural properties of the ion exchanged glass are measured using UV–Vis–NIR absorption spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Signature of silver nanoparticle formation is obtained from the UV–Vis–NIR spectra, which shows a peak at 425 nm due to surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Replacement of Na⁺ ions by Ag⁺ ions is inferred from FTIR spectra. Fluorescence spectra reveal the formation of Ag⁰ atoms from Ag⁺ ions at higher temperatures. TEM image shows the silver nanoparticles of average size 3.75 nm. At exchange temperature of 500 °C Ag nanoparticles are formed without post-exchange annealing treatment.     

Field-assisted ion exchange between molten alloys and soda lime glass

Using molten alloys, the electrolysis of soda lime glass has been studied. Ions from a molten anode can be driven into soda lime glass by applying a modest electric potential. The anode current densities have been measured. The temperature and potential dependences have also been measured. The current-time behavior depends on the ion exchange. In a molten alloy the most easily oxidized metal is suited for exchange.     

The effect of ion exchange on glass surface morphology and composition

The surface morphology and K⁺, Na⁺ concentration distributions of plate glass were investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM) and electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) before and after ion exchange. The AFM images indicate that the surface microcrack of chemical strengthened glass can be closed to a certain extent and the surface smoothness can be improved. The EPMA results indicate that the relationship between the weight gain and time, temperature follows Fick’s law, which are same as that of the thickness of ion exchanged layer, the total exchanged amount. Consequently, a simple and accurate weighing method was first proposed to estimate the ion exchange state.     

Surface plasmon excited infrared-to-visible upconversion in Er-doped transparent glass ceramics

The surface plasmon (SP) excited infrared-to-visible upconversion luminescence has been studied in the oxyfluoride glass ceramics containing Er³⁺-doped fluoride nano-crystals. Upconversion luminescence was observed at glass ceramics. Quantum yield of upconversion luminescence increased with increasing heat-treatment temperature. The transparent glass ceramics heat-treated at 700 °C was covered with a 50 nm gold film, and then attached to an SF10 prism with index-matching oil to make an attenuated total reflection (ATR) illumination. The intense upconversion luminescence bands at 540 and 660 nm were observed at the SP resonance angle by using p-polarized laser beam. The apparent dependences of the upconversion efficiency on laser polarization and on incident angle demonstrated the SP excited upconversion of Er³⁺.     

The structural and refractive index changes in the waveguides written by femtosecond laser in Er-doped silicate glasses

Waveguides with low propagation losses were written in erbium-doped silicate glasses by tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses. Raman spectra measurements and 2-D refractive index mapping in the micro-areas near the focus were carried out. The results supported that the refractive index change induced by fs laser pulses comes from the increase of the low rank ring structures in the silicate network.     

Manifestation of thermodynamic glass transition by structure and picosecond dynamics in alkali tellurite glasses

The Raman spectra of the 0.1Cs₂O–0.9TeO₂ melt were measured and analyzed over a broad temperature range including the glassy, supercooled and molten state in an effort to follow the varying structural and dynamical aspects caused by temperature and alkali modifier. The network structure of the glass/melt is formed by mixing TeO₄ trigonal bipyramid and TeO₃ trigonal pyramid units. Changing alkali content and/or temperature results to conversion of the TeO₄ units to TeO₃ units with a varying number of non-bridging oxygen atoms. The low-frequency Raman spectra reveal a well-resolved Boson peak whose frequency also depends on temperature. The variation of the maximum of the Boson peak has been determined and discussed in the framework of current phenomenological models. The short-time dynamics of the system experiences drastic changes when approaching the glass-to-liquid transition. The temperature dependent plot of the correlation times extrapolates to a crossover value, which we assign as spectral evidence of the system's known thermodynamic glass transition temperature. Similar behavior exhibit several spectral features, such as the maximum of the Boson peak, the exponent of the susceptibility and the intensity ratio related to the structural transformation from TeO₄ tbp to TeO₃ tp species occurring in the medium range order structure.     

Efficient 1.53 μm erbium light emission in heavily Er-doped titania-modified aluminium tellurite glasses

Ti–Al co-doped erbium tellurite glasses have been obtained by melting mixed Er₂O₃, TiO₂ and TeO₂ batches in Al₂O₃ crucibles. By crucible dissolution Al₂O₃ amounts from 11.5 to 18.6 mol% were introduced in the synthesized glasses. Differential thermal analysis of glasses points to a strong dependence of glass transition temperature T_g with the substitution extent of TeO₂ by the doping oxides. No crystallization features are observed up to 450 °C. The spectral features and decay kinetics of the infrared photoluminescence of erbium demonstrate the possibility to achieve more than 50% of quantum yield of light-emission at Er³⁺ concentrations as large as 10²¹ cm⁻³, with about 2 ms of lifetime, 8 × 10⁻²¹ cm² of stimulated emission cross section, and no saturation at pump power densities higher than 10 kW cm⁻². The study of the kinetics of Er–Er energy transfer suggests to ascribe these features to a particularly homogeneous dispersion of Er³⁺ ions in the modified tellurite network. Raman scattering measurements of the spectral distribution of vibrational modes evidence that the introduction of doping oxides leads to an increase of structural disorder without crystallization effects.     

Efficient frequency upconversion emission in Er-doped novel strontium lead bismuth glass

Er³⁺-doped strontium lead bismuth glass for developing upconversion lasers has been fabricated and characterized. The Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters Ω_t (t = 2, 4, 6), calculated based on the experimental absorption spectrum and Judd-Ofelt theory, were found to be Ω₂ = 2.95 × 10⁻²⁰, Ω₄ = 0.91 × 10⁻²⁰, and Ω₆ = 0.36 × 10⁻²⁰ cm². Under 975 nm excitation, intense green and red emissions centered at 525, 546, and 657 nm, corresponding to the transitions ²H_11/2 → ⁴I_15/2, ⁴S_3/2 → ⁴I_15/2, and ⁴F_9/2 → ⁴I_15/2, respectively, were observed. The upconversion mechanisms are discussed based on the energy matching and quadratic dependence on excitation power, and the dominant mechanisms are excited state absorption and energy transfer upconversion for the green and red emissions. The long-lived ⁴I_11/2 level is supposed to serve as the intermediate state responsible for the upconversion processes.     

Laser action and upconversion of Nd3+ in tellurite bulk glass

Laser action together with upconversion processes that produce green, orange, and red emissions in Nd³⁺-doped tellurite glass (TeO₂–TiO₂–Nb₂O₅) have been investigated. The upconversion processes were conducted in such a way that the dynamics of the visible fluorescence was analyzed under lasing and nonlasing conditions. The features observed in the time resolved upconverted emission show the existence of excited state absorption of both pump radiation and laser emission.     

Erbium doped fluoride glass-ceramics waveguides fabricated by PVD

Transparent amorphous and glass-ceramics waveguides in the system ZrF₄-LaF₃-ErF₃-AlF₃ (ZELA) have been fabricated by physical vapor deposition (PVD). The ceramming process was studied by means of X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy for different deposition temperatures. With increasing deposition temperature, formation of La_xEr_1−xF₃ nanocrystals with x ∼ 0.3 was observed. The decay curves of the ⁴I_13/2 level in the glass-ceramics with 14.5 mol% Er³⁺ gave evidence of the presence of erbium both in the amorphous matrix (τ = 8.6 ms) and in the crystal phase (τ = 2.2 ms). The decrease of lifetime was due to clustering of erbium incorporated in LaF₃ crystal lattice. No significant increase of attenuation loss was detected after waveguide cerammization (1.3 dB/cm at 1304 nm).