Fabrication and spectroscopic assessment of sol-gel derived SiO2-SnO2 glass-ceramics planar waveguides

We present fabrication and spectroscopic assessment of sol-gel derived SiO2-SnO2 glass-ceramic waveguides, uniformly doped with 1 mol% Eu3+. Using a top-down technique, based on appropriate thermal process, nanocrystals of SnO2 were nucleated in the glassy matrix. Spectroscopic investigations reveal the evolution towards a centro-symmetric local environment around the Eu3+ ion in the matrix. These glass-ceramic waveguides exhibit low-losses of 0.8 ± 0.2 dB/cm at 632.8 nm.