Abstract
Vanadium doped chalcogenide glass has potential as an active gain medium, particularly at telecommunications wavelengths. This dopant has three spin allowed absorption transitions at 1100, 737 and 578 nm, and a spin forbidden absorption transition at 1000 nm. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicated the presence of vanadium in a range of oxidation states from V+ to V5+. Excitation of each absorption band resulted in the same characteristic emission spectrum and lifetime, indicating that only one oxidation state is optically active. Arguments based on Tanabe–Sugano analysis indicated that the configuration of the optically active vanadium ion was octahedral V2+. The calculated crystal field parameters (Dq/B, B and C/B) were 1.85, 485.1 and 4.55, respectively.