Persistent spectral hole burning of Eu3+ ions in sodium aluminosilicate glasses

Hole burning spectroscopy has been carried out for glasses with compositions of (75-x)SiO2 . xAlO(3/2). 25NaO(1/2). 1.0EuO(3/2) with several aluminum oxide contents. Persistent hole was burned in the D-5(0)-F-7(0) transition of Eu3+ at temperatures between 4.2 and 20 K in aluminosilicate glasses, while the hole burning was not observed above 4.2 K in Silicate glass. In other words, an introduction of Al3+ ions in silicate glass promotes the formation of a stable hole, Hole spectra without any antiholes suggest that the holes are burned by an optically induced rearrangement of local structure around the Eu3+ ion. The homogeneous linewidth shows a linear dependence with T between 4.2 and 8 K and a nearly quadratic dependence for T>8 K. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.