Transparent germanosilicate glass-ceramics embedding γ-Ga2O3:Ni2+ nanocrystals have been fabricated. Optical amplification in the glass-ceramics was observed at ∼1.32μm under 0.96μm diode laser pumping in the 3A2g (3F) ↔ 3T2g (3F) resonance band of Ni2+ ions. The magnitude of the gain was estimated to be ∼13%.

A high-efficiency laser-assisted method of removing tin-doped indium-oxide In2O3 (Sn) films from the surface of sodium-potassium-silicate glass used for railway-transport glazing. This method increases work productivity by a factor of 10 without degrading the strength of transport-engineering glazing and at the same time decreases environmental damage caused by the manufacturing process.

We report on design and fabrication of Ni2+-doped glass-ceramics from a low-alkali optical glass in Li2O-Na2O-Ga2O3-SiO2-GeO2 system by melting technique and subsequent thermally controlled nano-crystallization. The analysis of differential scanning calorimetry, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy reveals, for the first time, the real possibility of optimizing the integrated intensity of Ni2+ near-infrared emission through controlled pre-treatments at temperatures of nanophase nucleation, with the enhancement up to a factor of four with respect to gallium germanosilicate glass-ceramics obtained without pre-treatments. Importantly, the effects on the light emission are shown to be related to the influence of pre-treatment on size and size distribution of the gallium oxide nanocrystals which result from subsequent crystallization at higher temperature.