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Optical materials prepared by the sol-gel process are of current technological interest. Sol-gel silica glasses doped with rareearth (RE3+) ions are an important class of optical materials with applications including solid-state lasers, optical waveguides, fiber amplifiers and devices for optical communications. In this paper, we describe the preparation of rareearth- doped silica-gel glasses and discuss the infrared properties of silica structure as a function of heat treatment. The samples were prepared from tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), water, ethanol, fumed silica and soluble in a water or ethanol the salts ofthe RE3+(Er3+,Nd3+,Sm3+,Pr3+,Eu3+) elements.

The high concentrated silica glasses doped with Ce and Sm ions were prepared by the sol-gel technique. The possibility of preparation of the Ce-doped glasses with a low absorption coefficient in the optical range above 350 nm and the luminescence quantum yield >= 90 percent is reported. Such glasses seem to be promising as filters for laser heads. The relatively high light scattering for Sm-doped glasses has been also observed.

In this paper we report the optical properties of Er-doped silica fibers. The fibers were produced from glasses obtained by sol-gel method. Luminescence spectra of Er3+ ion were measured in monolithic glass samples after excitation by a xenon lamp, as well as in the fiber after excitation by an IR 980 nm diode laser. It was found that under the IR excitation, a green emission at 540 nm was observed due to the up-conversion effect. This effect is associated with the aggregation of Er ions and constitutes an important factor reducing the efficiency of 1.55 micrometers emission.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

The paper presents the optical properties of glasses and optical fibers from quartz glass, obtained by the sol-gel method. A new technique of sol-gel glass preparation is described. Rods were formed from the glass thus produced from which PCS-type fibers were next drawn. Using the same sol-gel technology, the erbium-doped quartz glasses were obtained. The transmission and luminescence characteristics were measured for the glasses as well as for fibers drawn from them.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.