Preparation of Cu^+ tunable glass laser

为了研制基于Cu ~（2+）离子450 nm附近蓝光发射的固体可调谐激光器，确定了只含铜离子的磷酸钙玻璃的制备条件。将在环境气氛中熔融的含铜玻璃粉碎并在真空下与硅粉末一起密封在二氧化硅玻璃安瓿中，然后在1100 ℃下再熔融72小时。获得具有Cu+离子的均匀玻璃的最佳Si/Cu比在0.25附近。引入过多量的硅导致CuO胶体的形成，而低于Si/Cu=0.25的少量硅不足以减少在环境气氛下熔融期间形成的二价铜离子。用Nd-YAG激光器的FHG辐射作泵浦光，Ar离子激光束作探针，对宽3 mm、高3 mm、长15 mm的三面抛光的矩形玻璃样品进行了受激辐射增益的测试。实验结果表明，Nd-YAG激光器的FHG发射的强紫外光照射导致玻璃中形成缺陷，由于亚铜离子氧化成二价铜态，阻碍了发射增益。通过用铝取代部分钙离子来减少玻璃中的非桥氧，可以减少这种缺陷的形成，从而得出结论：制备无非桥氧的玻璃对于用Cu+制作固态可调谐激光器是必不可少的。满足该条件的建议玻璃是硼磷酸盐和铝磷酸盐的混合系统。

In orter to develop a solid state tunable laser based on the blue emission of the wavelength near 450mm from Cu+ions, the conditions for the preparation of calcium phosphate glass containing copper ions only in the cuprous state has been established. A copper containing glass melted in an ambient atmosphere was pulverized and sealed in a silica glass ampule under vacuum together with silicon powder, and then re-melted at 1100oC for 72h. The optimum Si/Cu ratio to obtain a homogeneous glass with Cu+ions was in the vicinity of 0.25. The introduction of too much amount of silicon resulted in the formation of colloid of CuO, while small amount of silicon below Si/Cu=0.25 was not sufficient to reduce cupric ions formed during the melting under ambient atmosphere. The examination of the gain by the stimulated emission from the prepared Cu+-containing glass was carried out on a rectangular glass sample of 3mm wide, 3mm hihg and 15mm in length having three surfaces finished in the optical flat using FHG emission of Nd-YAG laser as pumping light and Ar-Ion laser beam as a probe, respectively. It turned out by the test that the irradiation of a strong UV light of FHG emission of Nd-YAG laser leads to the formation of defects in the glass, which resulted in the hindrance of the gain of the emission due to oxidation of cuprous ions into cupric state. The formation of such defects could be reduced by reducing non-bridging oxygen in the glass by replacing a part of calcium by aluminum, which lead to conclusion that the preparation of a glass without non-bridging oxygen is essential to the fabrication of a solid state tunable laser using Cu+. The suggested glass to meet this condition is in the mixed system of boro-phosphate and alumino-phosphate.