Sol-gel method preparation silica gel-glasses, doped trivalent rare-earth ions for fiber optics applications

Abstract

Optical materials prepared by the sol-gel process are of current technological interest. Sol-gel silica glasses doped with rareearth (pj3) ions are an important class of optical materials with applications including solid-state lasers, optical waveguides, fiber amplifiers and devices for optical communications. In this paper, we describe the preparation of rareearth-doped silica-gel glasses and discuss the infrared properties of silica structure as a function of heat treatment. The samples were prepared from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), water, ethanol, fumed silica and soluble in a water or ethanol the salts ofthe RE3(Er3, Nd3, Sm3, Pr3, Eu3) elements.