ZBLAN:ER3+ energy up-conversion at low temperature

The process of upconversion in fluoride glasses doped with rare-earth elements (Er Nd Pr Tm and Yb) has received a great deal of attention from researchers all over the world. The interest is mainly due to the applications of this system in optical amplifier devices and lasers with numerous technological applications. Fluoride glass (ZBLAN) is an amorphous material which due to its advantages of low multiphonon relaxation stability in atmospheric conditions and low optical attenuation in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum is a good host material for rare earth ions. However in this specific case despite having been studied extensively the ZBLAN:Er3+ system presents some uncertainties regarding its optical properties. One of these is the effective participation of the glass matrix network in the up-conversion process. This paper presents upconversion and luminescence measurements at a temperature of 2K with some definitions.