Trivalent erbium doped glasses are attracting extensive interest due to its potential application in various optical devices such as optical communication

display and lasers.In this paper

the preparation and the infrared luminescent properties of some erbium doped oxide glasses were reported.High erbium doped three multicomponent oxide glasses

B

2

O

3

-SiO

2

Al

2

O

3

-SiO

2

and Li

2

O

3

-Al

2

O

3

-SiO

2

were fabricated by the technique of high-temperature melting.The infrared emission spectra of erbium in the glasses were measured under the excitation of a 488nm argon ion laser.The influence of the host composition and the erbium-concentration on infrared luminescent property at 1.5μm was studied.The results indicate that the emission in-tensity varies remarkably in different hosts.Among the glasses

the emission of erbium in the B

2

O

3

-SiO

2

glass is strongest

while that in the Al

2

O

3

-SiO

2

-CdO glass is the weakest.In addition

the emission intensity of B

2

O

3

-SiO

2

glass doped with erbium increases almost linearly with the erbium concentration

which is favorable for luminous material.In all the glasses

the emission intensity at 1.5μm increases with the erbium concentration

indicating that the concentration-quenching effect is small as the erbium concentration is lower than 2wt%.Among the three glasses

the Er

3+

Li

2

O-Al

2

O

3

-SiO

2

one has a widest emission band at 1.5μm.The global line width of erbium in this glass is as wide as 61.1nm due to the disordered local struc-ture surrounding the erbium ions.Therefore

it is expected to be a deal glass for optical waveguide amplifiers.By contrast to the components of the three glasses

it can be concluded that the global line width of erbium is probably broadened due to the co-doping of Li

2

O in the Al

2

O

3

-SiO

2

glass

although the detail origin is not clear.