Dynamics of glasses doped with rare earth ions: A study by permanent and transient hole-burning

The homogeneous linewidths of the electronic transitions 1D2↔3H4 of Pr3+ and 5D0↔7F0 of in silicate glass as a function of temperature have been obtained by means of hole-burning between 0.4 and 12 K, and 0.4 and 3.3 K, respectively. It was found that Γhom ∝ T1.0 for both inorganic glassy systems at low temperatures. The influence of the experimental time scale on the holewidth has been studied. No effect was observed for Eu3+ between 200 ms and 120 s. While permanent (hours) and short lived holes (minutes to seconds) were observed for Pr3+, only the latter are clearly observed for Eu3+. The hole recovery time was measured as a function of temperature. © 1990.