Judd-Ofelt analysis of Sm3+-doped lanthanum-aluminosilicate glasses

In this paper we report on the Judd-Ofelt analysis of Sm3+-doped lanthanum aluminosilicate glasses. The Judd-Ofelt calculations were done using two different least-squares fitting procedures (absolute and normalized) and two different cavity models (virtual and empty cavity model). It is shown that the absolute least-squares fitting procedure for the reported glasses yields physically more reliable results for the radiative lifetimes and branching ratios of the 4G(4)5/2 emission of Sm3+ than the normalized fitting method. The Ω2 parameters decrease with increasing lanthanum concentration of the glasses indicating an effect of the glass structure (network connectivity) on hypersensitive transitions in Sm3+. For the Ω4 and Ω6 parameters a clear correlation to the glass composition was not found.