Abstract

The impact of fictive temperature ($T_f$) on the evolution of point defects and optical attenuation in non-doped and ${\mathrm{Er}}^{3+}$-doped sol-gel silica glasses was studied and compared to Suprasil F300 and Infrasil 301 glasses before and after $\gamma$-irradiation. To this aim, sol-gel optical fiber preforms have been fabricated by the densification of erbium salt-soaked nanoporous silica xerogels through the polymeric sol-gel technique. These $\gamma$-irradiated fiber preforms have been characterized by FTIR, UV-vis-NIR absorption spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and photoluminescence measurements. We showed that a decrease in the glass fictive temperature leads to a decrease in the glass disorder and strained bonds. This mainly results in a lower defect generation rate and thus less radiation-induced attenuation in the UV–vis range. Furthermore, it was found that $\gamma$-radiation “hardness” is higher in ${\mathrm{Er}}^{3+}$-doped sol-gel silica compared to un-doped sol-gel silica and standard synthetic silica glasses. The present work demonstrates an effective strategy to improve the radiation resistance of optical fiber preforms and glasses through glass fictive temperature reduction.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

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