JOURNAL OF SOLID STATE CHEMISTRY 41, 253-261 (1982) Optical Transition Probabilities of Efli in Fluoride Glasses* R. REISFELDi AND G. KATZ Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel N. SPECTOR Soreq Nuclear Research Center, Yavne, Israel C. K. J@RGENSEN Dkpartement de Chimie mine’rale, analytique et applique’e, University of Geneva, Switzerland AND C. JACOBONI AND R. DE PAPE Laboratoire des Fluorures et OxyJluorures Ioniques (E.R. CNRS No. 609), Universith du Maine, F-7201 7 Le Mans Cedex, France Received August 5, 1981; in fmal form October 5, 1981 Lead-based fluoride glasses of the system PbF,-GaFs-MF,(M = Zn or Mn) doped by trivalent erbium were prepared by melting and quenching of the appropriate fluorides under inert atmosphere. Optical spectra of the glasses with and without manganese reveal identical characteristics in the near ir region of the spectrum. In the near uv and visible part, the manganese-containing samples show higher oscillator strength, probably due to interaction between Mn *+ and E?. Radiative and nonradiative characteristics of the glasses were computed, using the Judd-Ofelt method. Laser transitions of the glasses were predicted. 1. Introduction The group in Le Mans has found several types of lead-containing fluoride glasses (I, 2) in definite intervals of composition. The visible absorption spectra of the col- ored examples allow conclusions to be made about the local symmetry of transi- tion-group ions containing a partly filled d shell (1) orf shell (3), and also about their oxidation state (4). In this paper, we report the absorption spectra of the 4p1 system trivalent erbium, in some of the samples coexisting with bivalent manganese, a well- understood 3ds system. In a following pa- per, we are going to discuss the lumines- cence of such systems. The general behavior of erbium in vitreous materials, and the Judd-Ofelt theory of intensities of * Partially supported by U.S. Army Contract absorption bands (3, 5) and of transition DAJA-80-C-0.188. probabilities of luminescence, has been re- t Enrique Berman Professor of Solar Energy. viewed (6, 7). 253 0022-4596/82/030253-09$02.00/O Copyright @ 1982 by Academic Press. Inc. All rights of reproduction in any Form reserved.