Transition metal-doped chalcogenide glasses for broadband near-infrared sources

In this paper we report the spectroscopic data for samples of 0.031% iron, 0.017% nickel, 0.01% chromium and 0.017% cobalt (molar) doped gallium lanthanum sulphide (GLS) glass. Photoluminescence (PL) with a full width half maximum (FWHM) of around 500 nm and peaking between 1120 nm and 1460 nm is observed when excited using wavelengths of 850 nm and 1064 nm. The emission lifetime for nickel-doped GLS at 300 K was measured to be 40 μs. Photoluminescence excitation (PLE) peaks for chromium-doped GLS at 700 nm and 1020 nm have been observed. By comparisons of our spectroscopic data to that of transition metals doped into other hosts we determine the oxidation states of the transition metal ions and propose transitions for the observed spectroscopic peaks.