| Abstract |
The characteristics of rare-earth luminescence in selected sol-gel derived confined structures have been examined. Erbium and erbium/ytterbium doped photonic materials and structures have been prepared by sol-gel processing, in the form of silicate optical planar waveguides, modified with titania and hafnia, and 1-D photonic bandgap structures consisting of multilayer stacks of silica and titania. The Er3+ ions were found to be sensitive probes of the waveguide glass matrix structure, especially when hafnia-containing nanocrystallites were present, which narrowed and resolved different Stark components of the photoluminescence peaks. In 1-D Fabry-Perot coupled microcavities, efficient energy transfer was observed from Yb3+ to Er3+ ions when these were present simultaneously in the same defect layer, but not when the two types of ions were isolated in separate defect layers. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
