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Advanced Rare Earth Doped Functional Materials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical and Photonic Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 February 2026 | Viewed by 845

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Photonics Laboratory, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Interests: glass; glass-ceramic; rare-earth ions; gain media; luminescence; fiber; crystals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Photonics Laboratory, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Interests: bioactive glass; glass-ceramic; upconversion rare-earth ions; luminescence; fiber; crystals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decades, research on the spectroscopic properties of rare earth (RE) has quickly grown in importance, as RE ions play a fundamental role in various optical applications and advanced technologies, including lasers, optics, solar-energy conversion, displays and economical lighting, medical imaging, and quantum computing as well as rechargeable hybrid batteries, electronics, alloys, and magnets just to cite its few applications. Materials doped with RE elements have become vital due to their unique physiochemical properties, such as their distinct optical, magnetic, and electronic behaviors, enabling significant performance enhancements in these diverse fields.

Intense levels of research have been focused on developing new materials and designs that offer precise control over the sites of the RE ions and, consequently, their spectroscopic properties. For example, phosphors activated by Ce3+, Eu3+, and Tb3+ ions find application in lighting and displays, whereas crystals and glasses doped with Er3+ and Yb3+ can be used in lasers, optical fibers, and waveguides. Although the number of luminescent materials in different matrices (crystalline, amorphous, and glass ceramics, oxides, fluorides, chalcogenides, organics, etc.) or contained in molecular complexes has increased, there is a constant increase in demand for new RE doped materials to extend their practical applications.

This Special Issue highlights recent advances in Novel active devices and emerging applications of RE-doped optical materials. It focuses on innovative functional materials, particularly organic, crystalline, glass, and glass ceramics. Topics of interest include the latest research and advancement in luminescent materials, preparation and characterization methods, new processing methods for fabricating RE-doped glasses and glass ceramics, and advances in glass fibers and films. Toward this end, it is our pleasure to invite you to submit your manuscript to this Special Issue. Full papers, reviews, and communications are all welcome.

Dr. Khaldoon Nasser
Prof. Dr. Laeticia Petit
Dr. Nirajan Ojha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • rare-earth ions
  • structure and material design
  • novel functional materials
  • glass, glass ceramic, crystals
  • luminescence
  • laser and gain media

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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15 pages, 3464 KB  
Article
Multimode Magneto-Optical Fiber Based on Borogermanate Glass Containing Tb3+ for Sensing Applications
by Douglas F. Franco, Steeve Morency, Younès Messaddeq and Marcelo Nalin
Materials 2025, 18(20), 4736; https://doi.org/10.3390/ma18204736 - 16 Oct 2025
Viewed by 567
Abstract
A multimode magneto-optical fiber based on Tb3+-containing borogermanate glass was designed, fabricated, and characterized, aiming at potential sensing applications. There are continuing challenges in the development of single-mode (SMF) or multimode (MMF) optical fibers doped with rare-earth (RE) ions and exhibiting [...] Read more.
A multimode magneto-optical fiber based on Tb3+-containing borogermanate glass was designed, fabricated, and characterized, aiming at potential sensing applications. There are continuing challenges in the development of single-mode (SMF) or multimode (MMF) optical fibers doped with rare-earth (RE) ions and exhibiting high Verdet constants, related to devitrification of the precursor glass. Most RE-doped glass compositions are not suitable as precursors for core-cladding fiber production due to devitrification processes and consequent poor optical quality. Application as Faraday rotators is limited by the intrinsically low Verdet constant of silica (~0.589 rad T−1 m−1 at 1550 nm and 0.876 rad T−1 m−1 at 1310 nm). Borogermanate glasses are good candidates for manufacturing optical fibers due to their excellent potential to solubilize high concentrations of Tb3+ ions as well as satisfactory thermal stability. In this work, a magneto-optical core-cladding borogermanate fiber with a 227 μm diameter was fabricated, with characterization using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermomechanical analysis (TMA), viscosity measurements, M-lines spectroscopy, UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectroscopy, the cut-back technique, and magneto-optical measurements. The measured numerical aperture (NA) was 0.183, with minimum attenuation of 13 dB m−1 at 1270 nm. The Verdet constant (VB) reached −6.74 rad T−1 m−1 at 1330 nm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Rare Earth Doped Functional Materials)
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