Studies of Two Photon Absorption in Heavy Metal Oxide Based Glasses: Studies of Two Photon Absorption in Heavy Metal Oxide Based Glasses

A serial of glass samples in Bi(2)O(3)- B(2)O(3)-SiO(2) ternary system with high heavy metal oxide (Bi(2)O(3)) content were prepared by using conventional melting technique. Their linear refractive indexes n at 632.8nm were measured by prism-coupler, it showed that the n values were ranged from 1.9 to 2.1, and increased with increasing Bi(2)O(3) content which was due to the high polarizability of Bi(3+) ions; their linear absorption spectra were depicted by spectrophotometer, and the optical band gaps E(opg) were in the range from 2.229eV to 2.268eV while exhibited decreasing tendency with increasing Bi(2)O(3) content. By employing open apertured Z-scan measurements at various wavelengths (770, 800, and 850nm), nonlinear absorption coefficients b which were due to two-photon absorption (TPA) since the incident photon energy hv (1.61, 1.55, and 1.46eV) of measured wavelengths were between E(opg)/2 and E(opg) of all samples studied were obtained. The results showed that the glass sample with lowest Bi(2)O(3) content exhibited highest TPA coefficients ((3.6~6.1)x10(-12) m/W) which indicated as resonate-type induced by gap state at all measured wavelengths, demonstrating the sample can be applied in optical limiter. On the other hand, glass samples with higher Bi(2)O(3) content showed off-resonate-type TPA only at low wavelength of 770nm, and their TPA coefficients b increased with Bi(2)O(3) content leading to the great potentials in all-optical switching (AOS).