Science and technology of laser glass

There is an interplay between developments in glass technology leading to advances in lasers and the application of lasers to expand our knowledge and understanding of glass science. The current status and future prospects of various ions and host glasses for lasers and the extent to which laser parameters can be tailored by changing the chemical composition of the glass are surveyed first. The interplay between glass science and technology is illustrated further by considering the spectroscopic properties of rare earths in fused silica, where additions of co-dopants and ion clustering have large effects on local fields and optical spectra, and the operation of laser-pumped fiber lasers, where selective excitation due to site-to-site variations in the local field at the lasing ion can affect lasing characteristics. Current requirements for glasses for high power lasers, such as those used for inertial confinement fusion research, are also reviewed.