Thermal lens study of PbO–Bi2O3–Ga2O3–BaO glasses doped with Yb3+

Abstract The aim of this paper is to present a study of the thermal lens technique in quantifying the thermo optical coefficients: d s /d T (optical path change with temperature), thermal diffusivity and conductivity of PbO–Bi 2 O 3 –Ga 2 O 3 –BaO glasses doped with Yb 3+ . The thermal lens results indicate that the heat generation, as a function of the incident wavelength, resembles the absorption band 2 F 7/2 → 2 F 5/2 of Yb 3+ . Thermal diffusivity of 2 × 10 −3 cm 2 /s and thermal conductivity of 4.5 × 10 −3 W/K cm were obtained and are similar to other glasses already reported in previous literature. The results emphasize that the thermal lens technique can be a powerful tool to study the heat generation of new glassy systems.