Planar waveguides formed by Ag^+–Na^+ ion exchange in nonlinear optical glasses: diffusion and optical properties

Abstract

All-optical communication systems are the subject of intense research related to the integration of nonlinear optical materials. In sodiocalcic borophosphate glasses that contain niobium oxide and exhibit high nonlinear optical indices, planar waveguides have been formed by a Ag(+)-Na(+) ion-exchange technique. WKB analysis has been used to characterize the diffusion profiles of silver ions exchanged in glass substrate samples chemically by an electron microprobe technique and optically by an M-line technique. These methods permit the Ag(+) penetration depth and diffusion profile shape and index profiles to be determined. The results are analyzed and discussed in relation to Ca(2+) concentration and exchange conditions in glasses. The Ag(+) diffusion in these glasses can be almost entirely controlled for index-profile engineering.

On the femtosecond laser-induced photochemistry in silver-containing oxide glasses: mechanisms, related optical and physico-chemical properties, and technological applications

“…Other cationic elements of the glass matrix are considered as fixed elements [73], which is relevant in gallium-containing zinc phosphate matrices for temperatures below the glass transition temperature T g . Further numerical developments could include, whenever needed, the co-mobility of other elements especially like sodium ions [74]. Here, the general form of coupled equations of the derived model can be expressed as:…”

Ion Exchange in Glass – The Changes of Glass Refraction

“…As mentioned before, the ion exchange phenomenon in glass substrates occurs as a result of introduction of foreign admixture ions into the glass. The used admixtures are alkaline metal ions: lithium [19], potassium [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], rubidium [30], cesium [31], and ions of heavier elements: copper [32,33], silver [6,[34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43] and thallium [7.44]. The most common sources of these admixtures are molten nitrates.…”

“…For the volume of the glass for the external electric field vector the equality must be fulfilled: e E0 .    Taking into account this fact in the calculation of the operator 0 E   in the equation (38), after the transformations the final form of the equation is obtained, describing the spatio-temporal changes in normalized concentration of admixture in the glass:…”

Towards second harmonic generation micro-patterning of glass surface

“…7 Here, because of the high repetition rate of the femtosecond laser and probably through a multiphoton process that occurs in the presence of silver, 12 the thermal energy brought by the pulsed irradiations ablates silver and also partially thermally injects some amount of silver ions inside the glass. 13 These assumptions seem to be confirmed using wavelength dispersive x-ray spectroscopy ͑WDS͒, imaged with a scanning electron microscope, on the cross-section of the BPN42 sample at the anode side ͑xz plane͒ where concentration profiles of Ag + and Na + have been recorded ͑Fig. 3͒.…”