Thermal and spectroscopic properties of Tm3+ doped TZPPN transparent glass laser material

In this work a transparent bulk glass with the mol% composition 76TeO(2)center dot 10ZnO center dot 9.0PbO center dot 1.0PbF(2)center dot 3.0Na(2)O doped with Tm3+ has been synthesized. Results of differential thermal analysis (DTA) indicate a high thermal stability and low tendency to crystallization of this glass. The refractive indices at different wavelengths, the Urbach energy, the optical energy gap, the Sellmeier gap energy and the dispersion energy have been estimated. Spectroscopic quality factor of Tm3+ was evaluated from optical absorption spectra. Electric and magnetic dipole transition probabilities, branching ratios, and radiative lifetimes of several excited states of Tm3+ have been predicted using calculated intensity Judd-Ofelt parameters. The classical McCumber theory has been applied to evaluate the emission cross-sections for (3)E4 -> H-3(6) transition around 1.8 mu m. This study shows that TZPPN glass doped with Tm3+ ions is a promising candidate for laser applications. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.