Thermal lens study of PbO–Bi2O3–Ga2O3–BaO glasses doped with Yb3+

The aim of this paper is to present a study of the thermal lens technique in quantifying the thermo optical coefficients: ds/dT (optical path change with temperature), thermal diffusivity and conductivity of PbO–Bi2O3–Ga2O3–BaO glasses doped with Yb3+. The thermal lens results indicate that the heat generation, as a function of the incident wavelength, resembles the absorption band 2F7/2 → 2F5/2 of Yb3+. Thermal diffusivity of 2 × 10−3 cm2/s and thermal conductivity of 4.5 × 10−3 W/K cm were obtained and are similar to other glasses already reported in previous literature. The results emphasize that the thermal lens technique can be a powerful tool to study the heat generation of new glassy systems.