Investigation of thermal stability and spectroscopic properties in Er3+/Yb3+-codoped TeO2-Li2O-B2O3-GeO2 glasses.

The new Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped 70TeO2-5Li2O-(25-x)B2O3-xGeO2 (x = 0, 5, 10, 15 fand 20 mol.%) glasses were prepared. The thermal stability, absorption spectra, emission spectra and lifetime of the 4I(13/2) level of Er3+ ions were measured and studied. The FT-IR spectra were carried out in order to investigate the structure of local arrangements in glasses. It is found that the thermal stability, absorption cross-section of Yb3+, emission intensity and lifetime of the 4I(13/2) level of Er3+ increase with increasing GeO2 content in the glass composition, while the fluorescence width at half maximum (FWHM) at 1.5 um of Er3+ is about 70 nm. The obtained data suggest that this system glass can be used as a candidate host material for potential broadband optical amplifiers.