Photo-induced changes in optical parameters of silicate glasses multiphoton laser radiation absorption

摘要

Abstract: In this paper are the results of investigations of the mechanisms of photo-induced changes of alkali-silicate (crown) and lead-silicate (flint) glasses optical parameters upon the exposure to intense laser radiation, and the basic regularities of these processes are reported. These investigations were performed in Research Center 'S.I. Vavilov State Optical Institute' during the last 15 years. The kinetics of stable and unstable CC formation and decay, the effect of widely spread impurity ions on these processes, the characteristics of fundamental and impure luminescence, the kinetics of refractive index change under conditions of multi-photon glass matrix excitation, and other properties are considered. On the basis of analysis of received regularities it was shown that the nonlinear coloration of alkali-silicate glasses (the fundamental absorption edge is nearly 6 eV) takes place only as a result of two-photon absorption. Important efforts were aimed at the detection of three or more photon matrix ionization of these glasses, but they failed. However it was established that in the lead silicate glasses, the long-wave carriers mobility boundary is placed considerably higher than the fundamental absorption edge of material matrix. This results in that the linear color centers formation in the lead silicate glasses is not observed. The coloration of these glasses arises only from the two- or three-photon matrix ionization, and the excitation occurs through virtual states that are placed in the fundamental absorption region. In the report the available mechanisms of photo-induced changes of glasses optical parameters, and some applied aspects of this problem are discussed. !17