Spectroscopic evaluation of Nd3+ doped cadmium-boro-phosphate glasses for near-IR (1060 nm) laser applications

Neodymium-doped Cadmium-boro-phosphate glasses were synthesized using the melt quenching procedure to investigate their lasing capacities. The FTIR results reveal the different functional groups and structural units of our glass system. Physical parameters such as density (ρ), molar volume (VM), refractive index (n), Urbach energy (ΔE), and band gap (Eg) were measured, and computed. The results demonstrated that our glasses have indirect-allowed transitions with low localized states. The photoluminescence and absorption spectra were measured and the results suggest that the Nd3+ ions have a uniform distribution throughout the glass network. The Judd-Ofelt parameters (Ω2, Ω4, and Ω6) were obtained using the least-squares procedure. The spectroscopic quality factor (χ), the emission-peak-wavelength (λp), the radiative-transition-probability (Ar), the radiative lifetime (τrad), the radiative and experimental branching-ratio (βrad, βexp), the effective-bandwidth (Δλeff), the stimulated-emission-cross-section (σ(λp)), the gain-bandwidth (σ(λp), × Δλeff) and the optical-gain (σ(λp) x τrad) were measured, computed and compared with other famous reported glasses. The current glass showed low χ values (=0.45), high βexp (=0.7), and high optical gain (15.8 × 10− 24 cm2 s). According to its spectroscopic and radiative properties, our glass system shows remarkable potential for lasing around 1057 nm. •Neodymium-doped Cadmium-boro-phosphate glasses were synthesized using the melt quenching procedure.•The 4F3/2. → 4I11/2 transition were enhanced at the expense of the 4F3/2 → 4I9/2 and 4F3/2 → 4I13/2 transition•The current glass showed a relative high experimental branching ratio (βexp = 0.7).•The current glass showed a relative high optical gain (15.77 × 10−24 cm2 s).•The current glass shows remarkable potential for lasing around 1057 nm.