Photo‐Thermo‐Refractive Glasses: Effects of Dopants on Their Ultraviolet Absorption Spectra

Abstract

Data accumulated on the UV spectra of photo‐thermo‐refractive glasses known to be a new class of photo‐sensitive materials for nanophotonics is discussed. The paper is aimed to providing specialists in the applied photonics with a complete self‐consistent block of the latest information on the UV spectral manifestations of various oxidation states of dopants and on the redox balance between these states. For all oscillators related to the oxidation states of dopants such as cerium, silver, and antimony, the spectroscopic parameters are computed and analyzed. Intercomparison of the data is conducted in terms of the redox reactions between particular oxidation states of dopants. The effects of bromine in the matrix glass composition on the parameter magnitudes for the Ag + and Ce 4+ states are demonstrated and the origin of the effects is discussed. The roles of atomary silver and antimony in the Sb 3+ state as strong reducers with respect to cerium in the Ce 4+ state are analyzed. Estimates for the molar fractions of Ce 3+ and Ce 4+ states in the glasses with various dopant combinations are discussed. A possibility to reconstruct the absorption spectrum of commercial photo‐thermo‐refractive glass using data obtained on the parameter magnitudes for the oxidation states of dopants is shown.