Elaboration and Luminescence Properties of Laser-Heated Pedestal Growth Sr3Al2O6‑Based Fibers

• Published in: Crystal growth & design Vol. 22; no. 11; pp. 6828 - 6836
• Main Authors: Fernández-Carrión, Alberto José, Bourret, Julie, Sharp, James, Xing, Mengchuan, Duclère, Jean-René, Colas, Maggy, Cornette, Julie, Carles, Pierre, Genevois, Cécile, Brisset, François, Chenu, Sébastien, Allix, Mathieu, Delaizir, Gaëlle
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 02-11-2022
• Subjects: Chemical Sciences; Cristallography; Inorganic chemistry; Material chemistry
• ISSN: 1528-7483; 1528-7505
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.cgd.2c01064

The development of transparent optical fibers represents one of the biggest scientific challenges for a wide variety of modern technologies ranging from communication systems to medical applications. Here, transparent Sr3Al2O6 crystalline fibers have been grown by the laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) technique and the effect of using unconventional glass or ceramic seed is discussed. These fibers exhibit a unique micro- and nanostructure made of veins dispersed in a single-oriented Sr3Al2O6 crystalline matrix, which has been thoroughly characterized by using electron backscatter diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The LHPG method also successfully produced optical fibers of 1 at% Er3+-doped Sr3Al2O6. Even when other impurity was detected, the emission spectrum of the fiber presented sharp Er3+ emission bands and long fluorescence lifetime values arising from the high crystalline structure perfection provided by the LHPG method.