Abstract

In 2001, Fujimoto and Nakatsuka reported the observation of an intense luminescence around 1.2 μm in bismuth-doped silica glasses co-doped with aluminium [1], Since this, there have been other reports on this broadband emission (FWHM > 200 mn) in bulk materials and in fibres fabricated by Modified Chemical Vapour Deposition (MCVD).In the latter case, laser emission has been obtained with conventional solid state [2] or fibre [3] laser pumping sources around 1060 mn with efficiency up to 24 %. Despite these demonstrations, the luminescent centre responsible for this emission is still unidentified and none of the different hypothesis reported in the literature (Bi⁺, Bi⁵⁺, Bi cluster, {[AIO_4/2]^-, Bi⁺} complexes) is totally admitted.

© 2007 IEEE