Nanocomposite Photonic Materials

This paper presents two different kinds of rare earth-activated glass-based nanocomposite photonic materials, which allow to tailor the spectroscopic properties of rare earth ions. The first example concerns Erbium-activated silver exchanged silicate glasses where the role of silver as erbium sensitizer is investigated. The second one presents sol gel-derived erbium- activated SiC/SiO2 nanocomposites where a suitable thermal annealing leads to precipitation of nanosized ?-SiC embedded into an amorphous SiO2 matrix.