Abstract

Germanosilicate glasses are known to posesses photorefractive (photosensitive) properties [1], that allows to fabricate refractive index gratings in germanosilicate optical fibers [2]. Hydrogen loading silica and germanosilicate glasses enhances its photosensitivity significantly [3-6]. Since the germanium-oxygen deficient center (GODC) is the main photosensitive defect in germanosilicate glasses, it is of particulary importance to reveal the role of molecular H₂ in the processes of GODC phototransformation. In this work, we study the influece of molecular hydrogen impregnated into the glass network on the triplet decay time τ_T, luminescence intensity (T₁ - S₀, λ_max=397 nm) and efficiency of GODC photodecay when excited with low-intensity UV light.

© 1997 Optical Society of America