TC20: Photonic Glasses and Optical Fibers

TC20 focuses on glasses finding their application in optoelectronics and photonics. All the aspects of research & development are considered, going from design and fundamental properties to characterization and applications. In the recent years much attention has been devoted to new materials (glasses and glass-ceramics) for Lighting and Solar Energy. TC20 promotes international collaborations and sponsors international Workshops and Conferences relevant to the field.

Activities in 2020

2020 Conferences

The 2020 pandemic (COVID19) has greatly affected the scientific activities, too, and several events (meetings, conferences and exhibitions) have been either held in all-virtual web format or postponed, or even cancelled.

Thus, the ICG annual conference in Krakow, Poland (planned in September 2020) has unfortunately been cancelled. Spmilarly, the 12th ICG Summer School in Montpellier in 2020 has been cancelled but will run in 2021 with two streams – one ‘Basic Science’ and a second on ”Viscosity and viscoelasticity’.

Among the other conferences of interest to TC20:

CIMTEC in Montecatini Terme, Italy (a few TC20 members involved): planned on June 2020, moved to June 21-30, 2021 (same venue)

Pan American Ceramics Congress and Ferroelectrics Meeting of Americas, Panama City, Panama (M. Nalin and K. Richardson are co-organizers): postponed from July 19-23 to November 15-19, 2020

22nd International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON 2020), Bari, Italy – and – 1st Workshop on Progress in Nonlinear Photonics and Applications (PNPA)  (G.C. Righini was co-chair, with Luigi Sirleto and Richard De La Rue): held in the due dates (July 19-23, 2020), but in all-virtual format

ICOOPMA, Pardubice, Czech: rescheduled from August 23-28 to June 20-25, 2021.

2020 – Other activities and news

Even if prospects remain uncertain for what concerns the attendance to conferences in person in 2021, TC20 members are working to the organization of PRE’21, the 9th International Workshop on Photoluminescence in Rare Earths: Photonic Materials and Devices. The Workshop will be held on September 24-26, 2021 in Cancun, Mexico. The lead co-chair is Ciro Falcony, with Maurizio Ferrari and Shibin Jiang.

Wilfried Blanc has been lead editor, with Pieter Dorenbos, Fiorenzo Vetrone and Giancarlo C. Righini, of the Special Issue of Ceramics International collecting selected papers from the PRE’19 Workshop (the issue is almost ready for publication, as of beginning of September 2020).

Kathleen Richardson has been co-editor, wiith Alicia Duran and Lili Hu, of the Special Issue “Women in Glass” of the Internationa Journal of Applied Glass Science (volume 11, issue 3, July 2020 – the articles are free for a limited time)

Giancarlo C. Righini has been co-editor, with Francesco Enrichi, of the book “Solar Cells and Light Management“, published by Elsevier.

Setsuhisa Tanabe was appointed in July 2020 a main editor of the Journal of Luminescence. Congratulations to Setsu also for his nomination as Fellow of SPIE.

A Special issue of the journal Applied Sciences (IF= 2.474) is open for submissions on the subject of Ion Exchange in Glasses and Crystals. The deadline is on 20 December 2020. Guest editors are Jesús Liñares Beiras and Giancarlo C. Righini.

Activities in 2018/2019 – A short report

The focus of 2018 activity was the ICG Annual Congress in Yokohama, Japan (23-26 September 2018), where Setsuhisa Tanabe and Giancarlo Righini organized a topical section on “Glasses for 21st century photonic technologies”. Several TC20 members actively participated to the topical section, which saw, inside 6 parallel sessions during the three Congress days, a total of 33 oral presentations (11 invited).  A meeting of the TC20 Committee was also held during the ICG Congress in Yokohama, with a large participation (10 members were present).  It was agreed to devote more attention to outreach activities, also to illustrate the mission of ICG and TC20. To increase the knowledge of the properties and potentialities of the glasses for optoelectronics, it was also agreed to collect from TC20 members a few scientific articles already published in open access format, and to present them in the website. Such a “store of knowledge” could be useful to provide an updated overview of some recent advances in our research field.

Among other issues, Righini reported on the successful organization of PRE’17  and on the progressing organization of PRE’19, to be held in Nice, France, 4-6 September 2019. The 7th International Workshop on Photoluminescence in Rare Earths: Photonic Materials and Devices (PRE’17) was held in Rome, Italy, in November 2017 (http://pre17.fbk.eu). There were 140 participants from 28 countries; the technical program included 2 plenary lectures, 14 invited lectures, 61 oral communications and 60 poster presentations. Several TC20 members attended the workshop and contributed to its high scientific level.

Besides the usual business, the agenda of the TC20 meeting included the discussion of the possibility of common activities with TC03 “Glass Structure” and TC28 “Glass fibres for reinforcement and insulation”. Daniel Neuville (TC03, chair), Yuanzheng Yue (TC28, chair) and Hong Li (TC28, vice chair) attended the second part of the meeting; it was agreed that a couple of TC20 members (Ferrari, Nalin) could send samples and information to the TC03 and TC28 colleagues for further characterization and analysis. A photo of the participants in the Committee meeting is shown above.

A few Committee members had also met in Québec City [see a photo below]. during the 21st International Symposium on Non-Oxide and New Optical Glasses (ISNOG), 17-21 June 2018, where they were delivering invited talks and a keynote lecture (S. Tanabe).

At the end of 2018, TC20 received the applications of two new members, namely Dr. Xin Jiang, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany and Prof. Yong Gyu Choi, Korea Aerospace University, Korea. After evaluation of their curricula, TC20 expressed full agreement and congratulated with the two new members.

During 2018, many other activities were carried out by TC20 members; in the following we mention some of them.

Special Publications (2018-2019)

• L. Petit and D. Dorosz were guest editors, together with Wilfried Blanc (TC28), of a special issue of Applied Sciences on “Rare-Earth Doping for Optical Applications . The issue (closed on 31 August 2018) contains 8 research articles.
• S. Jiang and S. Taccheo were guest editors, together with B. Boulanger, S. Mirov, J. Nilsson, A. Petersen, F. Rotermund and T. Taira, of a Virtual Feature Issue of Optical Materials Express on “ Advanced Solid-State Lasers 2017 , collecting 31 articles.
• G. C. Righini was guest editor, together with N. Righini, of a special issue of Micromachines on “Glassy Materials Based Microdevices . The issue (closed 1 July 2019) contains 21 articles. A free e-book was also arranged, and a paperback book is available, too (https://www.mdpi.com/books/pdfview/book/1155)
• M. Ferrari is guest editor, together with F. Prudenzano and A. D’Orazio, of a special issue of Applied Sciences on “Advances on Dielectric Photonic Devices and Systems Beyond Visible . The deadline is 15 December 2019, and so far 4 articles have been published.
• A Virtual Feature Issue of the open-access Optical Materials Express on Mid-Infrared Materials and their Device Applications was published in 2018, containing 24 articles. L. Petit was guest editor, jointly with Juejun Hu, Luke Mawst, Steven Moss, and David Ting.

Collaborative Research Projects

Some TC20 members keep participating in the European Action COST MP1401 “Advanced fibre laser and coherent source as tools for society, manufacturing and life science”. S. Taccheo is chair of the action, and L. Petit is Management Committee (MC) member; J.-L. Adam and D. Dorosz are MC substitutes.

M. Ferrari was participating in the European project RECOLA (Recovery of lanthanides), which proposes the development of methodologies for extracting rare earth (and other metals) from e-waste to enable efficient waste management and the reintroduction of the economy of secondary raw materials. RECOLA also involves groups from Argentina, Brazil and Peru.

Organization or Scientific Managing of Conferences

• S. Jiang, TC20 vice-chair, was the chair or co-chair of three conferences in 2018: – SPIE’s Optical Components and Materials at Photonics West in San Francisco, USA;  – OSA’s Advanced Solid-State Lasers in Boston, USA; – Photonics Asia’s Advanced Sensor Systems and Applications in Beijing, China.
• M. Nalin was co-chair of the International Conference on Optical Optoelectronic and Photonic Materials and Applications – ICOOPMA2018, Maresias-SP, Brasil (August 26 – 31, 2018).
• M. Ferrari was co-chair of the 1st International Conference on Advances on Dielectric Photonic Devices and Systems Beyond Visible [D-Photon] (Bari, October 1-2, 2018).
• C. Falcony was member of the international committee, IX International Congress of Physics Engineering, Mexico City (November 5 – 9, 2018).

Other News and Awards

In May 2018, two TC20 members received awards from ACerS and gave magistral lectures at GOMD meeting in San Antonio, TX , USA: S. Tanabe (Kyoto University) received the Varshneya Frontiers of Glass Science Award and X.-H. Zhang (Rennes University) received the Varshneya Frontiers of Glass Technology Award.

G. C. Righini was honorary chair of the D-Photon Conference in Bari, Italy, on October 2018.

At the end of October, 2018, OSA The Optical Society announced the 2019 Fellows class. TC20 congratulates Animesh Jha for this recognition.

Activities in 2019

As customary, the primary goal of TC20 members is to effectively contribute to the 2019 international events most relevant for this committee, and in the first place to the 25th ICG Congress, held in Boston, Mass., June 9-14, 2019, hosted by ACerS Glass & Optical Materials Division, and to the 8th Intl. Workshop on Photoluminescence in Rare Earths (PRE’19), held in Nice (France) on 4-6 September 2019.

25th ICG Congress.    At the 25th International Congress on Glass, held in Boston, TC20 organized the Session 10 of the Symposium IV (Emerging Applications of Glass) on “Glass Materials and Devices for Photonic Systems”. S. Jiang and G.C. Righini coordinated this Session.

NASSPM.      The 1st North American Summer School on Photonic Materials (NASSPM), supported by the International Commission on Glass (ICG), was held June 16 – 21, 2019, immediately following the 2019 ICG Congress in Boston. Kathleen Richardson and Alicia Duran (ICG President) were influential members of the Organizing Committee.  ICG, through TC20, supported NASSPM by funding a grant that allowed a postdoc (dr. Lidia Zur) to attend the School.

ICTON 2019.  The 21^st  International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON 2019,) was held in Angers (France) on 9-13 July 2019. Several TC20 members participated with invited presentations (Jean-Luc Adam, Rolindes Balda, Wilfried Blanc, Maurizio Ferrari, Laeticia Petit, Stefano Taccheo, and others)

PRE’19.    The 8th International Workshop on “Photoluminescence of Rare Earths: Photonic Materials and Devices” will be held in Nice (France) on 4-6 September 2019. The co-chairs were W. Blanc, P. Dorenbos, F. Vetrone, whereas G. C. Righini was the honorary chair, M. Ferrari was the TC20 representative in the Local Organizing Committee. One of the photos above shows some of the winners of the money prizes funded by ICG through TC20 and of the recogniition certificates given to the best young presenters.

WSOF 2019.   Among the activities planned in the second part of 2019, one can mention WSOF 2019, the 6th Workshop on Specialty Optical Fibers and Their Applications, that will be organized by L. Dong and J. Ballato in Charleston, SC, 6-8 November 2019.

Members of TC20 are also expected to actively participate in numerous conferences worldwide as chairs, program committee members, and invited presenters.

Inter-TCs Collaboration: Following the contacts had with TC03 “Glass Structure” and TC28 “Glass fibres for reinforcement and insulation”, TC20 will aim at defining a joint plan to carry out common activities.

Journals’ Special Issues and other publications in 2019:  

The year 2019 will see the publication of some Special Issues on glass-related topics of international peer-reviewed journals, having some TC20 Committee members as Guest Editors. Besides the SIs already mentioned among the 2018 activities, more SIs will be completed during 2019 or 2020:

• A Special Issue of the journal Optical Materials  (IF=2.687) was published in January 19, including selected, peer-reviewed, papers from the PRE’17 Workshop. The Guest Editors were Dominik Dorosz, Giancarlo C. Righini, Maurizio Ferrari, and Laeticia Petit. [https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/optical-materials/vol/87]
• A book on Glass Micro- and Nanospheres: Physics and Applications was published in September 2019, edited by Giancarlo C. Righini.

PHOTONIC GLASSES: A STORE OF KNOWLEDGE

An activity begun in 2018 and continuing in the next years consists in arranging a collection of reprints of articles published by TC20 members in open access international journals. The provisional name of such a collection is PHOTONIC GLASSES: A STORE OF KNOWLEDGE, and is edited by Giancarlo C. Righini. Its goal is to make easily available a virtual volume whose contents may be greatly useful to both the researchers and the newcomers to the field of glasses for optics and photonics.

A preliminary set of articles is available since mid December 2018 at the address www.ifac.cnr.it/~righini/TC20

• P. Lopez-Iscoa, N. Ojha, A. Mishra, D. Pugliese, R. Gumenyuk, N. G. Boetti, D. Janner, J. Troles, B. Bureau, C. Boussard-Plédel, J. Massera, D. Milanese, L. Petit. “Design, processing and characterization of an optical core – bioactive clad phosphate fiber for biomedical applications”, J. American Ceramic Society 102 (2019) 6882–6892
• N. Ojha, T. Trautvetter, I. Norrbo, A. Kalide, M. Lastusaari, R. Mueller, L. Petit “Sintered silica bodies with persistent luminescence”, Scripta Materialia, 166 (2019) 15–18
• I. Dmitrieva, P. Lopez-Iscoa, D. Milanese, and L. Petit “Ternary borosilicates as potential cladding glasses for semiconductor core optical fibers”, Intl. J. Applied Glass Science, 10 (2019) 151–156
• A. Mishra, F. Desevedavy, L. Petit, F. Smektala, J. Massera “Core-clad phosphate glass fibers for biosensing”, Materials Science & Engineering C, 96 (2019) 458–465
• N. Ojha, M. Tuomisto, M. Lastusaari, L. Petit ”NaYF4:Er3+,Yb3+ nanocrystals-containing fluorophosphate glasses with upconversion prepared using the direct particles doping method”, RSC Advances, 8 (2018) 19226 – 19236
• N. Ojha, H. Nguyen, T. Laihinen, T. Salminen, M. Lastusaari, L. Petit ”Corrosion of microparticles in phosphate glass melt”, Corrosion Science, 135 (2018) 207-214
• M. Saarinen, A. Nommeots-Nomm, M. Hokka, J. Laurila, I. Norrbo, M. Lastusaari, J. Massera, L. Petit “Persistent Luminescent Particles Containing Bioactive Glasses: Prospect Toward Tracking in-vivo Implant Mineralization using Biophotonic glasses”, J. European Ceram Soc. 38 (2018) 287-295
• J. J. Velázquez, J. Mosa, G. Gorni, R. Balda, J. Fernández, L. Pascual, A. Durán, Y. Castro “Transparent SiO2-GdF3 sol–gel nano-glass ceramics for optical applications”, J. Sol-Gel Sci. Techn. 89 (2019) 322–332. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4693-z.
• F. Muñoz, R. Balda “A highly efficient method of dehydroxylation and fining of Nd phosphate laser glasses”, Int. J. App. Glass Sci. 10 (2019) 157-161. DOI: 10.1111/ijag.12974.
• G. Gorni, J.J. Velázquez, J. Mosa, G.C. Mather, A. Serrano, M. Vila, G.R. Castro, D. Bravo, R. Balda, J. Fernández “Transparent Sol-Gel Oxyfluoride Glass-Ceramics wit High Crystalline Fraction and Study of RE incorporation” Nanomaterials 9 (2019) 530. DOI: 10.3390/nano9040530.
• J.J. Velázquez, J. Mosa, G. Gorni, R. Balda, J. Fernández, A. Durán and Y. Castro “Novel sol-gel SiO2-NaGdF4 transparent nano-glass-ceramics”, J. Non-Cryst. Solids 520 (2019) 119447-119451.  DOI: 10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2019.05.023.
• I. Iparraguirre, Azkargorta, S. García-Revilla, J. Fernández, R. Balda “Input/output energy in solid state dye random lasers” Optics Express 27 (2019) 19418-19425 DOI: 10.1364/OE.27.019418
• A. Albalawia, C. Brilliant, A. Chiasera, H. Gebavi, R. Balda, M. Ferrari, W. Blanc, W. Albalawi, H. Hung, A. Quandt, A. Lukowiak, S. Taccheo “Analytical modelling of Tm-doped tellurite glass including cross-relaxation process”, Opt. Mater. 87 (2019) 29-34. DOI: 10.1016/j.optmat.2018.06.037
• Y. Katayama, S. Tanabe “Downconversion for 1 micron luminescence in lanthanide and Yb3+ co-doped phosphors”, Chap.12 in Solar Cells and Light Management, F. Enrichi & G. C. Righini, Eds. (Elsevier, 2019) pp.415-441.
• J. Ueda, A. Hashimoto, S. Tanabe, “Orange Persistent Luminescence and Photodarkening Related to Paramagnetic Defects of Nondoped CaO-Ga2O3-GeO2 Glass”, J. Phys. Chem. C (2019) in press. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b07638
• J. Ueda, S.Tanabe, “Review of luminescent properties of Ce3+-doped garnet phosphors: New insight into the effect of crystal and electronic structure”, Opt. Mater. Express 1 (2019) 100018 (Invited Article)       DOI:10.1016/j.omx.2019.100018
• K. Asami, J. Ueda, S. Tanabe, “Long persistent luminescence and blue photochromism in Eu2+-Dy3+ co-doped barium silicate glass ceramic phosphor”, J. Lumin. 207, (2019) 246-250.     DOI: 10.1016/j.jlumin.2018.11.006
• J. Xu, S. Tanabe, “Persistent luminescence instead of phosphorescence: History, mechanism, and perspective”, J. Lumin. 205, (2019) 581-620. (Invited Review)    DOI: 10.1016/j.jlumin.2018.09.047  (Ranked as Top 1 Downloaded Article in J. Lumin. for 12-months after its publication)
• W. Blanc, I. Martin, H. François-Saint-Cyr, X. Bidault, S. Chaussedent, C. Hombourger, S. Lacomme, P. Le Coustumer, D. R. Neuville, D. Larson, T. J. Prosa, C. Guillermier “Compositional Changes at the Early Stages of Nanoparticles Growth in Glasses”, J. Physical Chemistry C, 123 (2019) 29008-29014.  DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.9b08577
• T. Paixão, L. Pereira, R. Min, C. Molardi, W. Blanc, D. Tosi, C. Marques, P. Antunes, “Inscription of fiber Bragg gratings and Fabry-Pérot interferometers on a Er-MgO-doped optical fiber”, Optics Laser and Technology, 123 (2020) 105946. DOI: 10.1016/j.optlastec.2019.105946
• A. Beisenova, A. Issatayeva, I. Iordachita, W. Blanc, C. Molardi, D. Tosi “Distributed fiber optics 3D shape sensing by means of high scattering NP-doped fibers simultaneous spatial multiplexing”, Optics Express 27 (2019) 22074-22087.  DOI: 10.1364/OE.27.022074
• F. Mady, A. Guttilla, M. Benabdesselam, W. Blanc, “Systematic investigation of composition effects on the radiation-induced attenuation mechanisms of aluminosilicate, Yb-doped silicate, Yb- and Yb,Ce-doped aluminosilicate fiber preforms”, Optical Materials Express (Invited Article)  9 (2019) 2466-2489.
• A. Beisenova, A. Issatayeva, S. Sovetov, S. Korganbayev, M. Jelbuldina, Z. Ashikbayeva, W. Blanc, E. Schena, S. Sales, C. Molardi, D. Tosi, “Multi-fiber distributed thermal profiling of minimally invasive thermal ablation with scattering-level multiplexing in MgO-doped fibers », Biomedical Optics Express, 10 (2019) 1282-1296.  DOI : 10.1364/BOE.10.001282
• A. Chiasera, C. Meroni, F. Scotognella, Y. G. Boucher, G. Galzerano, A. Lukowiak, D. Ristic, G. Speranza, S. Valligatla, S. Varas, L. Zur, M. Ivanda, G. C Righini, S. Taccheo, R. Ramponi, M. Ferrari, “Coherent emission from fully Er3+ doped monolithic 1-D dielectric microcavity fabricated by RF Sputtering”, Optical Materials 87 (2019) 107-111.
• L. Zur, C. Armellini, S. Belmokhtar, A. Bouajaj, E. Cattaruzza, A. Chiappini, F. Coccetti, M. Ferrari, F. Gonella, G. Righini, E. Trave, A. Vomiero, F. Enrichi, “Comparison between glass and glassceramic silica-hafnia matrices on the down-conversion efficiency of Tb3+/Yb3+ rare earth ions”, Optical Materials 87 (2019) 102-106.
• M. Soltys, A. Górny, L. Zur, M. Ferrari, G. C. Righini, W. A. Pisarski, J. Pisarska “White light emission through energy transfer processes in barium gallo-germanate glasses co-doped with Dy3+-Ln3+ (Ln =Ce, Tm)”, Optical Materials 87 (2019) 63-69.
• A. Chiappini, C. Armellini, V. Piccolo, L. Zur, A. Vaccari, D. Zonta, G.C. Righini, M. Ferrari, “Colloidal crystals based portable chromatic sensor for butanol isomers and water mixtures detection”, Optical Materials 90 (2019) 152-158.
• M. Kuwik, A. Górny, L. Zur, M. Ferrari, G. C. Righini, W. A. Pisarski, J. Pisarska, “Influence of the rare earth ions concentration on luminescence properties of barium gallo-germanate glasses for white lighting”, J. Luminescence 211 (2019) 375-381.
• C. Meroni, F. Scotognella, Y. Boucher, A. Lukowiak, D. Ristic, G. Speranza, S. Varas, L. Zur, M. Ivanda, S. Taccheo, R. Ramponi, G. C. Righini, M. Ferrari, A. Chiasera, “Low-threshold coherent emission at 1.5µm from fully Er3+ doped monolithic 1D dielectric microcavity fabricated by rf-sputtering”, Ceramics 2 (2019) 74-85.
• G. C. Righini, Editor, Glass Micro- and Nanospheres. Physics and Applications, Jenny Stanford, Singapore (2019).
• F. Enrichi and G. C. Righini, Editors, Solar Cells and Light Management. Materials, Strategies and Sustainability, Elsevier, Amsterdam (2019)

Committee Members

Adam, Jean-Luc
Balda, Rolindes Committee Position: Core Group
Ballato, John Committee Position: Core Group
Blanc, Wilfried
Choi, Yong Gyu
Dorosz, Dominik
Falcony, Ciro
Ferrari, Maurizio
Hewak, Daniel Committee Position: Core Group
Jha, Animesh
Jiang, Shibin Committee Position: Vice Chair
Jiang, Xin
Kapoor, Saurabh
Kondo, Yuki
Messaddeq, Younes
Nalin, Marcelo
Norin, Lars
Ohishi, Yasutake
Petit, Laeticia Committee Position: Secretary
Richardson, Kathleen Committee Position: Core Group
Righini, Giancarlo Committee Position: Chair
Tanabe, Setsuhisa Committee Position: Core Group
Zhang, Long
Zhang, X-H.
Kayaalp, Caner

Committee Contact Details

TC20 : Photonic glasses and optical fibers
Dr. Giancarlo C. Righini
CNR & Enrico Fermi Center
Italy