Optical properties of fluoroindate glasses doped with rare earth ions.

Multicomponent indium based fluoride glass singly doped with europium, terbium, holmium and thulium has been investigated using methods of optical spectroscopy. Owing to low energy of phonons available in the glass matrix, the luminescent levels of rare earth ions are depopulated mainly by radiative transitions and nonradiative ion-ion interaction. The latter mechanism has been found to govern the relaxation dynamics of the /sup 5/D/sub 2/, /sup 5/D/sub 1/ levels of europium, the /sup 5/D/sub 3/ level of terbium, the /sup 5/S/sub 2/ level of holmium and the /sup 2/D/sub 5/, /sup 1/G/sub 4/ and /sup 3/H/sub 4/ levels of thulium when the activator concentration amounts to several mol%.