Oxyfluoride glass and glass ceramics doped with Er 3+ , Yb 3+ and Nd 3+ for near-infrared applications

Oxyfluoride glasses, and more recently, glass ceramics, doped with trivalent rare earth ions (RE) have attracted much attention for near-infrared laser applications with the promise to combine the merits of fluorides (low phonon energy, moderate refractive indexes, extensive IR window) and oxides (high chemical and mechanical stability, higher RE solubility. In the past few years we have studied compositions doped with Er 3+ , Yb 3+ and/or Nd 3+ with excellent optical quality, long excited state lifetimes and high quantum efficiency values. This presentation will give an overview of this class of optical materials and discuss the most recent results which characterize them as potential candidates for infrared laser applications.