Abstract

We have demonstrated an RGB solid-state 3D display based on two-step, two-frequency (TSTF) upconversion in bulk rare earth doped heavy metal halide glasses.¹,² Figure 1a shows the basic two-step absorption process and figure 1b shows how two scanned pump lasers are made to intersect inside a bulk sample of active material to create three-dimensional images. Green upconversion fluorescence is obtained by pumping trivalent erbium doped glasses with 1.5 um and 850 nm, and blue from pumping Tm³⁺ doped glasses with 800 nm and 1120 nm. Figure 2 shows the energy level diagrams of these three ions along with the respective resonant pump wavelengths and emission lines.

© 1996 Optical Society of America