New optical nonlinear crystallized glasses and YAG laser-induced crystalline dot formation in rare-earth bismuth borate system

• Published in: Optical materials 2002-08, Vol.20 (1), p.27-33
• Main Authors: Honma, T., Benino, Y., Fujiwara, T., Sato, R., Komatsu, T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bismuth borate glass; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency conversion; harmonic generation, including high-order harmonic generation; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Glasses, quartz; Harmonic generation, frequency conversion; Nonlinear optics; Optical materials; Optics; Other nonlinear optical materials; photorefractive and semiconductor materials; Physics; Rare-earth ions; Second harmonic generation; Transparent crystallized glass
• ISSN: 0925-3467; 1873-1252
• DOI: 10.1016/S0925-3467(02)00027-7

New optical nonlinear transparent surface crystallized glasses have been successfully fabricated in the system of Ln 2O 3–Bi 2O 3–B 2O 3 (Ln=La, Sm, Gd). The second harmonic (SH) generation from the crystalline phases at the surface layers has been confirmed from Maker fringe measurements. It is suggested that the optical nonlinear crystals precipitated through the crystallization of Ln 2O 3–Bi 2O 3–B 2O 3 glasses would be new metastable Bi x Ln 1− x BO 3 phases in which Bi 3+ ions in BiBO 3 are substituted by Ln 3+ ions. The thickness of crystallized surface was approximately 5 μm and SH intensity was 0.02 compared with that of the Z-cut α-quartz with a thickness of 0.6 mm. In 12.5Sm 2O 3·30Bi 2O 3·57.5B 2O 3 glass, the crystalline dots with diameters of 5–65 μm are formed by the irradiation of CW YAG laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm (at 0.6 and 0.7 W, for 1–240 s), and it is found that these crystalline dots generate optical SH waves. This is the first finding on optical nonlinear crystalline dot formation by YAG laser irradiation in bismuth-containing glasses.