Laser-induced grating spectroscopy of rare earth ions in solids

The characteristics of energy transfer and migration processes important in the optical dynamics of Tm,Ho:YAG and Tm:YAG laser crystals were investigated using both time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and laser-induced grating spectroscopy. Four-wave mixing techniques were used to produce permanent laser-induced refractive index gratings in Eu-doped silicate glasses. The effects on the characteristics of these permanent gratings produced by changing the divalent modifier ions of the glass host are reported. Efficient long-range energy migration was found to take place in the 3F4 level of the Tm ions, which enhances the energy transfer to Ho ions. The parameters describing excitation migration were determined experimentally and used to calculate an overall Tm-Ho energy transfer rate. This was found to be in close agreement with the rate determined by the results of fluorescence spectral dynamics measurements. Theoretical estimates were made of the fundamental ion-ion interaction rates responsible for each of the physical processes investigated here and the results were all found to be in close agreement with the experimentally determined values. The author extends previous investigations on the Eu-doped silicate glasses by describing the variation of the four-wave-mixing signal intensity of a series of glasses with different divalent alkaline network modifier ions. The temperature dependence of the signal from one of the samples was measured and a theoretical explanation for the change in the refractive index associated with the double-minimum potential well model is developed