Crystalline waveguides in fluorides and oxides: fabrication and characterization

Summary form only given. The development of new active optical materials (glasses, crystalline bulk or waveguide) is stimulated by diverse applications emerging from many fields of real-world applications. In recent years, multifarious interest has focussed work on dielectric laser media for the emission in the near ultraviolet (UV) up to infrared (IR) range by the use of either transition metal or lanthanide ions for active centres. When accounting for the present status, implementations using bulk materials or glass fibres forge ahead systems based on crystalline waveguides of dielectric materials. This review reports on recent progress in the fabrication of crystalline waveguides, mainly of oxides and fluorides.