Optical fibers with bismuth-doped silicate and germanate glass cores were fabricated by the modified chemical vapor deposition technique (solution and vapor-phase Bi incorporation). The fibers revealed an efficient luminescence with a maximum in the 1050-1200 nm spectral range, FWHM up to 200 nm, and a lifetime of the order of 1 ms.

We report on the optical spectroscopy of monolithic fiber preform prepared from nanoporous bismuth-doped silica glass. The experiments reveal the existence of at least two different types of active centers and clearly demonstrate that the presence in the glass matrix of other dopant is not necessary to obtain the near-IR photoluminescence connected to Bismuth.

Spectroscopic properties of optical fibers with a bismuth-doped silicate glass core are explained on the basis of molecular orbital theory and a solution of the Schrödinger equation, which takes into account the exchange, the spin-orbital, and the glass field potential interactions of s, p, and d electron shells of bismuth with s(sigma), p(sigma), and p(pi) orbits of oxygen atoms. The approach can explain the IR luminescence properties of other optical centers formed by other atoms with the same structure of electron shells as the bismuth atom. The model of transitions based on intramolecular charge transfer between molecular orbital and metallic states is proposed.

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