LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE AND NONLINEAR OPTICAL-PROPERTIES OF ION-IMPLANTED FUSED-SILICA

We report absorption, fluorescence and nonlinear optical properties of fused silica implanted with Ti, Cu and Bi and doses of 1 x 10(15) to 6 x 10(16) ions/cm2 when irradiated with 532 nm laser light. The fluorescence spectrum is a broad band around 640 nm and shows little variation for all ion species. Absorption as a function of implanted dose shows a threshold for Ti between 1 x 10(16) and 6 x 10(16) ions/cm2. The nonlinear optical index is large, n2 > 10(-5) esu. All measured quantities show a strong dependence on the implanted ion dose. The source of the nonlinearity, whether electronic or thermal, remains to be more completely determined.