Random Lasers Based on Tellurite and Germanate Glasses and Glass-Ceramics Doped with Rare-Earth Ions
Random lasers (RLs) based on glasses and glass-ceramics doped with rare-earth ions (REI) deserve great attention because of their specific physical properties such as large thermal stability, possibility to operate at high intensities, optical wavelength tunability, and prospects to operate Fiber-RLs, among other characteristics of interest for photonic applications. In this article, we present a brief review of experiments with RLs based on tellurite and germanate glasses and glass-ceramics doped with neodymium (Nd³⁺), erbium (Er³⁺), and ytterbium (Yb³⁺) ions. The glass samples were fabricated using the melt-quenching technique followed by controlled crystallization to achieve the glass-ceramics. Afterwards, the samples were crushed to obtain the powder samples for the RLs experiments. The experiments demonstrated RLs emissions at various wavelengths, with feedback mechanisms due to light scattering at grain/air and crystalline/glass interfaces. The phenomenon of replica symmetry breaking was verified through statistical analysis of the RLs intensity fluctuations, indicating a photonic phase-transition (corresponding to the RL threshold) analogous to the paramagnetic-to-spin glass transition in magnetic materials. The various results reported here highlight the potential of glasses and glass-ceramics for the development of RLs with improved performance in terms of reduction of laser threshold and large lifetime of the active media in comparison with organic materials.
Citação
@online{silva,_davinson_m.2025,
author = {Silva, Davinson M., Da and Josivanir G. , Câmara and Niklaus
U. , Wetter and Jessica , Dipold and Luciana R. P. , Kassab and
Araújo, Cid B., De},
title = {Random Lasers Based on Tellurite and Germanate Glasses and
Glass-Ceramics Doped with Rare-Earth Ions},
volume = {16},
number = {5},
date = {2025-04-30},
doi = {10.3390/mi16050550},
langid = {pt-BR},
abstract = {Random lasers (RLs) based on glasses and glass-ceramics
doped with rare-earth ions (REI) deserve great attention because of
their specific physical properties such as large thermal stability,
possibility to operate at high intensities, optical wavelength
tunability, and prospects to operate Fiber-RLs, among other
characteristics of interest for photonic applications. In this
article, we present a brief review of experiments with RLs based on
tellurite and germanate glasses and glass-ceramics doped with
neodymium (Nd\textsuperscript{3+}), erbium (Er\textsuperscript{3+}),
and ytterbium (Yb\textsuperscript{3+}) ions. The glass samples were
fabricated using the melt-quenching technique followed by controlled
crystallization to achieve the glass-ceramics. Afterwards, the
samples were crushed to obtain the powder samples for the RLs
experiments. The experiments demonstrated RLs emissions at various
wavelengths, with feedback mechanisms due to light scattering at
grain/air and crystalline/glass interfaces. The phenomenon of
replica symmetry breaking was verified through statistical analysis
of the RLs intensity fluctuations, indicating a photonic
phase-transition (corresponding to the RL threshold) analogous to
the paramagnetic-to-spin glass transition in magnetic materials. The
various results reported here highlight the potential of glasses and
glass-ceramics for the development of RLs with improved performance
in terms of reduction of laser threshold and large lifetime of the
active media in comparison with organic materials.}
}