Raman characteristics and nonlinear optical properties of tellurite and phosphotellurite glasses containing heavy metal oxides with ultrabroad Raman bands

A family of glasses suitable for ultrabroadband Raman amplifications was designed and fabricated. In addition to the bandwidth the gain characteristics of these glasses are expected to be much higher than those of the silica based materials. The thermal stabilities of these glasses in view of fiber fabrication were discussed. The various structural units which contribute to the overall Raman band were unraveled. Accordingly the various bands were tailored in such a way to get a wide continuous Raman band. The nonlinear optical properties which are vital for optical switching and other nonlinear processes were studied via third-harmonic generation measurements. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.