Structural, thermal, dielectric & electrical properties of FP glasses

In recent years, Inorganic glasses doped with rare earth ions have found technological importance in the development of new solid state lasers, display technology, sensors, optical devices, opto-electronics and fibre amplifiers. Glasses can be manufactured with excellent homogeneity without grain boundaries, thereby minimizing the optical losses and can be also easily prepared in desired forms, e.g. prisms, flats, lenses and more importantly as optical fibers, needed for optical communications. At present glass is versatile material that is commercially available over a wide range of compositions and can be fabricated by several techniques to produce variety of products. The science of glass is going through a revolution, paving way for the next generation condensed matter physics. Glasses can be cast in variety of forms and sizes, from small hairy fibre to meter sized pieces. Glasses are also relatively inexpensive along with chemical homogeneity and low birefringence.