NIR photoluminescence studies of Nd3+doped B2O3–BaF2–PbF2–Al2O3 glasses for 1.063 μm laser applications

Highlights: • The J-O intensity parameters of the glass samples. • Experiment lifetimes are calculated from decay measurements. • The evaluation of absorption cross section, emission cross section and gain cross section. • The figure of merit and saturated intensity are calculated. • NIR laser emission near 1.063 μm was obtained. This paper describes the preparation and characterization of various concentrations of Nd³⁺ doped B₂O₃–BaF₂–PbF₂–Al₂O₃ (BaPbAlFB) glasses in detailed. The glasses used in the present work are synthesized by using melt quenching process and characterized by measuring the absorption, photoluminescence (PL) and PL decay spectral profiles. The energies of the absorption spectral profiles called oscillator strengths are evaluated from the absorption spectra and subjected to Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory to evaluate the J-O intensity parameters using least squares fit method. Under 808 nm diode laser excitation, the BaPbAlFBNd glasses exhibit three emission bands at near-infrared region around 887, 1063, 1336 nm from ⁴F_3/2 → ⁴I_9/2, ⁴I_{11/2 and} ⁴I_13/2 radiative transitions respectively. Among the three emissions, the one observed at 1063 nm is found to be more intense relatively. The lifetime of ⁴F_3/2 transition has been estimated experimentally through decay measurements recorded under 808 nm excitation wavelength. Among all the BaPbAlFB glasses investigated, the one with 1.0 mol% of Nd³⁺ ions is showing relatively high fluorescence quantum efficiency. The measured saturation intensity (I_S) values shows relatively the low threshold values. The obtained results endorsed the potentiality of BaPbAlFBNd1.0 glass for the fabrication of fiber amplifiers and solid-state lasers that can act in NIR region at 1063 nm wavelength.