Rare earth doped fluoride glass ceramics: Fabrication of waveguides by PVD and application

Er
³⁺
-doped fluoride glass ceramics planar waveguides containing LaF
3
or binary LaF
3
-ZrF
4
nanocrystals have been fabricated by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD). A quantitative analysis of the photoluminescence of the 1.54 µm emission band of Er
³⁺
ions has demonstrated that erbium ions are partitioned in both crystals and vitreous phase. The solubility of Er
³⁺
in the segregated LaF
3
nanocrystals can reach 30 mol%. The emission bandwidth has been found to be greater than that of the precursor glass (71 nm at the half-height width). In order to increase the luminescence of Er
³⁺
, codoping with Yb
³⁺
and Ce
³⁺
has also been studied. The high Er
³⁺
concentration and spectral width could make this nanostructured fluoride material suitable for planar amplifier in the C telecommunication band.