Rare earth doped glass and glass-ceramic

The glass–ceramic materials are produced by a controlled devitrification or crystallization from a precursor glass. This process differs from the spontaneous crystallization that is a common problem in the glass production. After the devitrification process, the glass–ceramic material contains an amorphous phase of the remaining glass and one or more nanocrystalline phases, all resulting in a mixture of properties. Transparent glass–ceramics containing rare-earth ions or nonlinear optical crystals have received considerable attention, because such materials have high potential applications in photonics. From the viewpoint of practical applications in integrated optics or photonic crystals, it is important to fabricate transparent glass–ceramics with controlled patterns as micro-scale dots or lines, which can be used as laser waveguides, gratings or wavelength conversion devices.

^{Orange fluorescence on Dysprosium doped BTS glass when argon laser is passing}

Some selected papers about glass and glass ceramics are:

Experimental enhancement of the photocurrent in a solar cell using upconversion process in fluoroindate glasses exciting at 1480 nm.

Nanocrystal formation using laser irradiation on Nd3+ doped barium titanium silicate glasses.

Study of the focusing effect of silica microspheres on the upconversion of Er³⁺-Yb³⁺ codoped glass ceramics.

Upconversion emission obtained in Yb³⁺-Er³⁺ doped fluoroindate glasses using silica microspheres as focusing lens.

Characterization of Er³⁺ and Nd³⁺ doped Strontium Barium Niobate glass ceramic as temperature sensors.

Transfer and back transfer processes in Yb³⁺–Er³⁺ codoped Strontium Barium Niobate glass-ceramics.

Optical study of the effect of the impurity content on the ferroelectric properties of Er³⁺ doped SBN glass-ceramic samples.

Optical properties of transparent Dy³⁺ doped Ba₂TiSi₂O₈ glass ceramic.

Structural changes induced on strontium barium niobate glass by femtosecond laser irradiation.

Formation of Nd(3+) doped Strontium Barium Niobate nanocrystals by two different methods.Crystallization effect on Tm³⁺-Yb³⁺ codoped SBN glass ceramics.