Thermal lens measurements of fluorescence quantum efficiency in Nd3+-doped fluoride glasses

In this work we used a thermal lens (TL) method in the dual beam mod-mismatched configuration, to determine the fluorescence quantum efficiency, η. Three kinds of Nd3+-doped fluoride glasses were studied: fluorozirconate 53ZrF4–29BaF2–4.5LaF3–3.5AlF3–10NaF–XNdF3 (ZBLAN); fluoroaluminate 20YF3–40AlF3–20BaF2–20CaF2–XNdF3 (YABC) and fluoroindate 30PbF2–20GaF3–15InF3–15ZnF2–20CaF2–XNdF3 (PGIZCa); with X = 1 or 2 mol%. For all these samples we obtained the quantum efficiency, η, between 0.80–0.94 and 0.67–0.76 for X = 1 and 2 mol%, respectively. The quantitative treatment for the TL effect provided the absolute fluorescence quantum efficiency of a sample. The TL method has been shown to be a convenient technique for quantum efficiency measurements.