Up-conversion visible emission in rare-earth doped fluoride glass waveguides

The paper presents the visible emissions through frequency up-conversion and energy transfer process in the waveguide rare-earth (RE) codoped with RE3+/Yb3+ (RE = Er, Pr, Tm), as well as physical properties of fluoride glasses and their fabrication par physical vapor deposition. The RE doping is made by substituting LaF3 in the base ZLAG glass composition (70%ZrF4-23.5%LaF3-0.5%AlF3-6%GaF3). Under 980-nm excitation, the emissions in planar waveguides of 2 to 3 thickness are found similar to the ones observed in bulk; blue and red emissions for 0.5 Pr3+ /xYb3+ codoping and blue emission for 0.75Tm3+/xYb3+ codoping with x ranging from 1 to 5 mol%. The bulk glass doped with Er3+/Tm3+/Yb3+ can generate simultaneously and with high efficiency red-green-blue emissions from single-wave pumping at 980 nm. These preliminary results show that Er3+/Tm3+/Yb3+ triply doped ZLA waveguide is a potential material for compact white light sources.