A study of the optical properties of Pr³⁺-Yb³⁺ ions in oxyfluoride glass and glass ceramics has been carried out. The transparent oxyfluoride glass ceramics were obtained just by thermal treatment of the glass (30SiO₂+15Al₂O₃+29CdF₂+22PbF₂+(4-x-y)YF₃+xPrF₃+ yYbF₃) at 470º C for 36 h to precipitate nanocrystallites without loss of transparency. An important feature of these materials, relevant to devices such lasers and amplifiers, is that rare-earth dopants preferentially segregate into the fluoride nanocrystals phase when cerammed, and thus reside low phonon energy sites.

The cross section emissions at 1300 nm corresponding to the 1G₄->3H₅ transition of Pr³⁺ ions have been obtained and compared for the glass and glass ceramics samples. Due to the ceramming process the linewidth of this transition is reduced about 12 % and the spontaneous emission probability is increased about 18 %. Consequently, an increase of the emission stimulated cross section by a factor 1.4 is obtained.

This interesting transition coming from the ¹G₄ level of Pr³⁺ ions could be efficiently excited from energy transfer process from Yb³⁺ ions. So, the energy transfer processes among Yb³⁺ and Pr³⁺ ions under excitation at 980 nm have bee extensively studied. From the fits of the fluorescence decays of Yb³⁺ ions it could be concluded that the most of rare earth ions are placed in the nanocrystalline environment and participate in an efficient energy transfer process from Yb³⁺ to Pr³⁺ ions.

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1. Optical properties of rare earth doped oxyfluoride glass-ceramics