Enhancing the Er3+: Infrared and mid-infrared emission performance in germanosilicate-zinc glasses

Abstract Rare earth doped luminescence glasses have been noteworthy recently in the fields of near-middle-infrared applications. In this work, serious Er 3+ doped new kind of germanosilicate-zinc glasses have been investigated aiming to obtain efficient infrared and mid-infrared luminescence performance. The drastically reduced OH − content in present host support the enhanced 2.7 and 1.5 μm emissions corresponding to the 4 I 11/2  →  4 I 13/2 and 4 I 13/2  →  4 I 15/2 transitions owing to the decreased energy loss between OH − and active ions. Meanwhile, the energy transfer mechanism has been discussed based on both the infrared and visible spectra together with the measured decay curves. Hence, the large absorption and emission cross-sections indicate that this kind of germanosilicate-zinc glasses may provide high gain as a good medium for efficient infrared laser system.