doi:10.1364/OE.23.026356engSola, D.Conejos, D.De Mendivil, J.M.SanMartín, L.O.Lifante, G.Peña, J.I.Directional solidification, thermo-mechanical and optical properties of (MgxCa1-x)3Al2Si3O12 glasses doped with Nd3+ ionsART-2015-92335In this work glass rods of (MgxCa1-x)3Al2Si3O12 (x = 0, 0-5 and 1) doped with 1 wt% Nd2O3 were produced by the laser floating zone technique. Thermo-mechanical and spectroscopic properties have been evaluated. The three glass samples present good thermo-mechanical properties, with similar hardness, toughness and glass transition temperatures. The spectroscopic characterization shows spectral shifts in absorption and emission spectra. These spectral shifts together with Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters and ionic packing ratio have been used to investigate the local structure surrounding the Nd3+ ions and the covalency of the Nd-O bond. All obtained results agree and confirm the higher covalency of the Nd-O bond in the Ca3Al2Si3O12 glass.2015http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/3220210.1364/OE.23.026356http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/32202oai:zaguan.unizar.es:32202info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7/314630/EU/DEVELOPMENT OF NEW UV LASER FOR CUSTOMIZATION AT INDUSTRIAL LEVEL THROUGH HIGH QUALITY MARKING ON DIFFERNT MATERIALS/UV-MarkingOptics Express 23, 20 (2015), 26356-26368by-nc-ndhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess