Abstract

There has been much recent interest in rare-earth-doped fibers and waveguides for their application in amplifiers and lasers.^1,2 However, nearly all of the host materials used so far have been inorganic glasses and crystals. Considering the utility of polymer optical fibers and waveguides, rare-earth-doped polymer systems are also of interest. One way to incorporate rare-earth ions, into polymers is to encapsulate the ions in organic chelates and dope these complexes directly. The potential of two types of rare-earth chelates, tetrakis (dibenzoylmethide) (D₄) and tetrakis (benzoyltrifluoroacetonate) [(BTF)₄], have been evaluated by studying their radiative properties using a Judd-Ofelt treatment.^3,4

© 1996 Optical Society of America