Thermal stability, spectra and laser properties of Yb: lead–zinc–telluride oxide glasses

Abstract A series of new glasses of 70TeO2–(20 − x) ZnO–xPbO − 5La2O3–2.5K2O–2.5Na2O (mol%) doped with Yb3+ is presented. Thermal stability, spectra and laser properties of Yb3+ ions have been measured. It found that 70TeO2–15PbO–5ZnO–5La2O3–2.5K2O–2.5Na2O composition glass had fine stability ((Tx−Tg)>190 °C), high-stimulated emission cross-section of 1.25 pm2 for the 2F5/2 → 2F7/2 transition and existed measured fluorescence lifetime of 0.94 ms and the broad fluorescence effective linewidth of 72 nm. Evaluated from the good potential laser parameters, this system glass is excellent for short pulse generation in diode pumped lasers, short pulse generation tunable lasers, high-peak power and high-average power lasers.