High-Rate Deposition Of Rare-Earth Doped Silicate Nanoparticles For Porous & Dense Optical Films

A novel deposition process has been developed for manufacturing of high quality rare-earth doped glass films with complex composition. This process, Laser Reactive Deposition (LRD™), comprises photothermal laser pyrolysis using an aerosol feedstock coupled with deposition of the resulting nanoparticle product onto Si substrates with our without an underlying glass film. This paper describes this novel process as well as the structure, properties and performance of the Er-doped, multicomponent silicate glass films produced to date with this process.