Spectroscopic properties of heavy metal oxide glasses doped with erbium

Glasses of heavy metal oxide (Bi2O3–PbO–Ga2O3) doped with different concentrations of Er3+ are presented. Measurements of absorption, emission and fluorescence lifetime at 1532 nm are shown. Measured lifetimes showed a maximum value of 3.94 ms for the glass with 0.50 wt% of Er2O3. The increase of lifetimes at low Er2O3 concentration was attributed to radiation trapping whereas the subsequent decrease to concentration quenching. Interesting spectroscopic properties for laser action at 1532 nm were observed for the sample with 0.1 wt% of Er2O3: fluorescence lifetime of 3.76 ms, emission cross-section of 0.69×10−20 cm2 and effective line width of 68.7 nm.