Fabrication and characterization of new phosphate glasses and glass-ceramics suitable for drawing optical and biophotonic fibers

Rare earth doped phosphate glasses are attractive materials for the engineering of photonic devices, due to their easy processing, good thermal stability, excellent optical properties and high rare-earth ions solubility [1]. Besides, phosphate glasses with a P₂O₅ content of 50 mol% have been shown to be suitable for fiber drawing. It is well known that if the rare-earth ions are located in crystalline phase of desired nature and structure, the spectroscopic properties of the glasses can be enhanced [2]. Therefore, efforts have been focused on the development of new glass-ceramics (GCS) obtained from the heat treatment of glasses, as these engineered materials possess some of the glass properties (large flexibility of composition and geometry) but also some advantages of the RE-doped single crystals (high absorption and emission as well as long lifetimes).