1995, Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Heike, Ehrt, Doris

The most widely used method for determination of the OH content of glasses is the IR spectroscopy. The absorption bands in the range of 2500 to 4000 cm⁻¹ are due to the fundamental stretching vibrations of OH groups having different degrees of association. The calibration of the absorption coefficient, α, of an OH band requires the determination of the absolute OH content of some samples by another method than IR spectroscopy. Comparing water outgassing method with ¹H NMR spectroscopy, a large difference in the OH content was observed. Therefore, it is more appropriate to use solely the absorption coefficient as a relative measure of the true OH content. If certain requirements are met, the quantitative analysis of the absorption coefficient of different glass samples is justified.

1998, Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Heike, Ehrt, Doris

The relationships between host glass composition and optical properties of rare earth ions were studied by means of absorption and emission spectroscopy. Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺ were found to be appropriate indicator ions for determining the properties of the local environment around rare earth ions. Er³⁺ and Nd³⁺ ions are widely used in lasers and amplifiers. The knowledge of the compositional influence on the spectroscopic parameters of rare earth ions enabled the modeling of the emission properties of important Er³⁺ and Nd³⁺ transitions in order to figure out the Optimum host glasses. Fluoride phosphate and phosphate glasses are attractive candidates for lasers and amplifiers. In these glasses, the degree of covalency between the rare earth ions and surrounding ligands mainly affects the spectroscopic parameters of rare earth ions such as Judd-Ofelt parameters and electron-phonon coupling strength. The increase of the electron-phonon coupling strength with the phosphate content is responsible for the decrease of the Er³⁺ emission intensity at 540 nm. Otherwise, it increases the Er³⁺ emission intensity at 1.5 µm in the fluoride phosphate glasses. The lower microparameters of Nd³⁺ cross relaxation in phosphate glasses cause the higher lifetimes of the Nd³⁺ ⁴F₃/₂ laser State at higher Nd³⁺ concentrations with respect to fluoride phosphate glasses. The energy transfer to OH groups in phosphate glasses decreases the hfetime and emission intensity of the laser State of both Er³⁺ and Nd³⁺ ions.