Search

Cooperative upconversion luminescence (CUCL) occurs in spectral regions in which single ions do not have energy levels. However, all results reported so far are concentrated on luminescence properties from Yb3+ ions-doped various hosts. Here, we report the observation of nonlinear negative transmittance (NNT) at continuous-wavelength (CW) 980-nm laser diodes (LDs) pumping in silicate oxyfluoride glass ceramics (GCs)-containing CaF2:Yb3+ nanocrystals. The unique optical nonlinearity is analyzed based on energy-level transitions, dynamic evolution, rate equation, and power transmission equation, which can be explained as the cooperative optical absorption for the intense CUCL of Yb3+ ions. The NNT in the CaF2:Yb3+ nanocrystals-embedded GCs can be tailored with the power of a CW 980-nm LDs, which possesses potential for the development of future optical limiters and switches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Optical modulation is a crucial operation in photonics for network data processing with the aim to overcome information bottleneck in terms of speed, energy consumption, dispersion and cross-talking from conventional electronic interconnection approach. However, due to the weak interactions between photons, a facile physical approach is required to efficiently manipulate photon-photon interactions. Herein, we demonstrate that transparent glass ceramics containing LaF3: Tm3+ (Er3+) nanocrystals can enable fast-slow optical modulation of blue/green up-conversion fluorescence upon two-step excitation of two-wavelengths at telecom windows (0.8-1.8 μm). We show an optical modulation of more than 1500% (800%) of the green (blue) up-conversion fluorescence intensity, and fast response of 280 μs (367 μs) as well as slow response of 5.82 ms (618 μs) in the green (blue) up-conversion fluorescence signal, respectively. The success of manipulating laser at telecom windows for fast-slow optical modulation from rear-earth single-doped glass ceramics may find application in all-optical fiber telecommunication areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]