Transparent materials such as single crystals or glasses doped with various rare earth and transition metal ions have been widely applied as the solid-state laser gain media, for optical and photonic applications. Contrary to them, transparent polycrystalline ceramics offer some important advantages including their relatively cheap fabrication in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, significantly higher doping concentration without undesirable quenching effects, high chemical and dopant distribution uniformity, or spatially varying doping profiles. The Department of Ceramics and Polymers has many years of experience in the preparation and study of the properties of various transparent ceramics (Al2O3, MgAl2O4, c-ZrO2), often doped or co-doped with various rare earth elements (Er, Eu, Tb, Dy, Tb, Nb,...) or transition metals (Cr, Mn, Ti, ...). The next goal will be the study the different doping strategies to obtain transparent polycrystalline materials with optimal optical and luminescent properties for various usage in photonic applications. The research was performed namely in cooperation with FunGlass Centre of Excellence Trenčín (Slovakia).

Contact person:
Karel Maca, prof.