Thermal lens measurements of fluorescence quantum efficiency in Nd3+-doped fluoride glasses

Abstract In this work we used a thermal lens (TL) method in the dual beam mod-mismatched configuration, to determine the fluorescence quantum efficiency, η . Three kinds of Nd 3+ -doped fluoride glasses were studied: fluorozirconate 53ZrF 4 –29BaF 2 –4.5LaF 3 –3.5AlF 3 –10NaF– X NdF 3 (ZBLAN); fluoroaluminate 20YF 3 –40AlF 3 –20BaF 2 –20CaF 2 – X NdF 3 (YABC) and fluoroindate 30PbF 2 –20GaF 3 –15InF 3 –15ZnF 2 –20CaF 2 – X NdF 3 (PGIZCa); with X = 1 or 2 mol%. For all these samples we obtained the quantum efficiency, η , between 0.80–0.94 and 0.67–0.76 for X = 1 and 2 mol%, respectively. The quantitative treatment for the TL effect provided the absolute fluorescence quantum efficiency of a sample. The TL method has been shown to be a convenient technique for quantum efficiency measurements.