ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author concentrates mainly on the practical aspects of neodymium-doped glasses, including their compositions, properties, and preparation procedures. Phosphate glasses typically have high cross sections for stimulated emission which result in high laser efficiencies. Of the phosphates, the K2O-BaO-P2O5 glasses generally have the highest cross-sections. The heavy metal fluoride glasses have several important properties including low fundamental vibrational modes so that the glasses are transparent in the infrared. Production of high-quality laser glass with a high-damage threshold has been a problem since the first high-power glass lasers. One major reason for a low-damage threshold is the presence of small foreign particles in the glass which can absorb the laser light. Generally, glasses melted in ceramics are of a poorer optical quality than glasses melted in platinum. Therefore considerable effort has been expended on the problem of melting in platinum without contaminating the glass with platinum particles.
