Tm3+ Tellurite-Modified-Silica Glass Thin Films Fabricated Using Ultrafast Laser Plasma Doping

Thin glass films have been produced by implanting Tm
³⁺
doped and Tm
³⁺
/Er
³⁺
codoped tellurite glasses into silica substrates using ultrafast laser plasma doping for the first time. The resulting glass films had thicknesses of up to 2 μm, refractive indices of 1.5-1.65 and exhibited photoluminescence in the 1.5-2.1 μm wavelength region when excited with 808 nm and 976 nm laser diodes. The OH
^-
content of the silica glass substrate was also found to have an effect on the Tm
³⁺
:
³
F4 photoluminescence lifetime in the modified thin glass film layer, with the high OH
^-
containing substrate exhibiting a shorter lifetime. Through optimization of the femtosecond laser ablation parameters, we have produced crack-free thin films of Tm
³⁺
doped tellurite-modified silica glass layers with good thickness uniformities of ±10 nm, and the refractive index of the modified layer is up to 13% higher than the bare substrate material.