Near-infrared emission in barium gallo-germanate glasses co-doped with Ce3+ and Pr3+ for broadband optical amplifiers

Near-infrared emission in barium gallo-germanate glasses containing rare earth ions for broadband optical amplifiers were studied. Among the rare earths, the trivalent praseodymium and cerium ions were selected as an optically active dopants. In order to examine the spectroscopic properties of these glasses doped with Pr3+ and co-doped with Ce3+ and Pr3+ ions the luminescence spectra were registered. The energy transfer processes between cerium and praseodymium ions in barium gallo-germanate glasses have been also investigated. The intense near-infrared luminescence bands corresponding to characteristic transitions of Pr3+ ions in singly and doubly doped glass systems were observed. It has been proved that our glasses exhibit intense 1.5 ?m emission originating from 1D2 -> 1G4 transition of Pr3+ under direct excitation (445 nm). Moreover, the experimental results indicated that energy transfer between Ce3+ and Pr3+ is not effective for barium gallo-germanate glasses.