Linear and nonlinear optical properties of some tellurium oxide glasses

Abstract

The investigation of tellurium oxide glasses (TOG) for photonic applications has been very intense in the past years. The enormous interest in these glasses is due to their large transmittance from the visible to the near-infrared, small phonon energies, large resistance to atmospheric moisture, large acceptance of rare-earth (RE) ions doping, and high nonlinear (NL) optical response. These characteristics allow the successful use of TOG for color displays, sensing, optical limiting, and all-optical switching, among other applications. In this chapter, we review some of our previous works performed with samples based on different TOG compositions. Photoluminescence (PL) properties of RE ion-doped TOG and the influence of embedded metallic and semiconductor nanoparticles on the PL efficiency are discussed. A short review of the third-order nonlinearity of one TOG composition in the visible and near-infrared is also presented. The NL refraction indices and NL absorption coefficients of the glass are evaluated as well as their figure of merit for all-optical switching and optical limiting. The possible mechanisms contributing for the optical response of the samples are discussed.