Phosphate-Bismuthate Glass and Fiber with Heavy Doping of Silver Nanoparticles(Invited)

Glass with heavy doping of noble metal nanoparticles is expected to exhibit high optical nonlinearity.In this study,the effects of glass composition,structure,and heat treatment on the formation of silver nanoparticles(Ag NPs)in phosphate-bismuthate(PB)glass are investigated.By optimizing the chemical composition and preparation parameters,strong localized surface plasmon resonance is achieved in the PB glass with a silver mass fraction of more than 13%,which is 20 and 6 times higher than that in bismuthate and phosphate glasses reported previously,respectively.The high solubility of the phosphate component and the self-reduction effect of the bismuthate component jointly contributed to the stability and high content of Ag NPs in the PB glass.Z-scan measurements show that such heavy doping PB glass has a reverse saturable absorption coefficient of-14×10^(-12)m·W^(-1)and a saturable absorption coefficient of 4.94×10^(-12)m·W^(-1)at 800 nm.Furthermore,the heavy doping PB glass exhibits excellent thermal stability,making it promising for the fabrication of nonlinear optical fibers.In addition,with a heavily silver-doped PB glass rod as the core and a commercial silicate glass tube as the cladding,a composite glass fiber with high Ag-NP doping is successfully fabricated using a“molten-core”fiber drawing method.