Molecular dynamics study of rare-earth doped Mg-silicate nanoparticles in vitreous silica: from the preform to the fiber

Formation of rare-earth doped nanoparticles into silica matrix has been modelized by Molecular Dynamics simulations. Preforms with molar composition 0.10MgO–0.90SiO 2 and 0.01EuO 3/2 –0.10MgO–0.89SiO 2 have been investigated to have an insight on the structure and chemical composition of the nanoparticles, as well as the rare-earth ions local environment and their clustering. We have finally applied a uniaxal elongation of the rare-earth doped preform in order to mimic the drawing step that changes a preform into a fiber. We present herein first results on the modification of the nanoparticles size distribution.