Temperature dependence of fluorescence quantum efficiency of optical glasses determined by thermal lens spectrometry

Abstract In this work thermal lens spectrometry is applied to determine the fluorescence quantum efficiency, η, of Nd2O3-doped low silica calcium aluminosilicate glasses as a function of the temperature. The experiments were performed in the temperature range between 22 and 180 ° C. The results showed that the decrease in η observed with increase in the temperature of the samples was larger for the larger Nd2O3-doping concentrations. This observation indicates that the non-radiative relaxation processes induced by Nd–Nd ion interactions may be the dominant mechanism responsible for the η reduction. The results indicate that the thermal lensing technique is a useful tool to evaluate the effect of the active medium temperature in the performance of laser systems.