The influence of melting temperature on the luminescence properties of bismuth-doped barium alu-minosilicate glasses was studied.Bismuth-doped barium aluminosilicate glasses were prepared at various melting temperatures.Absorption spectra

visible luminescence

infrared luminescence and fluorescent lifetime of the infrared luminescence of the glass samples were measured.There were two absorption peaks

one strong peak is at about 320 nm

and the other is at about 450 urn.The absorbance increased with increasing melting temperature.Visible luminescence was observed at about 420 nm

440 nm and 475 nm when excited by 380 nm ultraviolet light.The infrared luminescence was observed at about 1330 nm when excited by 808 nm laser diode (LD).The intensity of the visible luminescence decreased with increasing melting temperature

while the intensity of the infrared luminescence increased at first

and then decreased with a further increase of melting temperature.But the fluorescent lifetime of the infrared luminescence decreased at first

and then in-creased with a further increase of melting temperature.The broadband infrared luminescence originates from bismuth ions

but is not due to high valence state ion of bismuth as suggested by Fujimoto et al.We attribute the visible and infrared luminescence to Bi

3+

and Bi

+

respectively.The melting temperature may greatly influence the broadband infrared luminescence of bismuth-doped glasses.It is necessary to choose best melting temperature for the preparation of bismuth-doped glasses.