Time Resolved Fluorescence Line Narrowing in Ytterbium-Doped Inorganic Glasses

ABSTRACTWe have used time resolved fluorescence line narrowing to study optical dephasing and energy transfer among Yb3+ ions doped in inorganic glasses. We observe for the first time in any rare earth doped glass system a change in the power of the temperature dependence of the homogeneous linewidth of the 2F5/2(1)-2F7/2(1) transition of Yb, 3+ as well as an efficient one-phonon assisted energy transfer process occuring among Yb3+ ions at higher concentration due to a quadrupole-quadrupole coupling of the ions. In this paper we review past studies in rare earth doped gla s systems of these topics and compare them to our observations of Yb3+ in silicate and phesphate glasses.