Er-doped phosphate glasses were fabricated by melt-quenching technique. The changes in their thermal, structural and luminescence properties with the addition of Al2O3, TiO2 or ZnO were studied.Physical and thermal properties were investigated through density measurement and differential thermal analysis. Structural characterization was performed using the Raman and Infrared spectroscopy. In order to study the influence of the composition on the luminescence properties of the glasses, the refractive index, the luminescence spectra and the lifetime values were measured.The results show that with the addition of Al2O3 and TiO2 the phosphate network becomes more connected increasing the glass transition temperature, whereas the addition of ZnO does not show 2 significant changes in the optical, thermal and structural properties but it leads to a larger emission cross-section at 1540 nm as compared to the other glasses. As the site of the Er 3+ is not strongly affected by the change in the glass composition, we think that the emission properties of the glasses depend on the glass structure connectivity, which has an impact on the Er 3+ ions solubility.

Er-doped phosphate glass ceramics were fabricated by melt-quenching technique followed by a heat treatment. The effect of the crystallization on the structural and luminescence properties of phosphate glasses containing Al2O3, TiO2, and ZnO was investigated. The morphological and structural properties of the glass ceramics were characterized by Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and micro-Raman spectroscopy. Additionally, the luminescence spectra and the lifetime values were measured in order to study the influence of the crystallization on the spectroscopic properties of the glasses. The volume ratio between the crystal and the glassy phases increased along with the duration of the heat treatment. The crystallization of the glass ceramics was confirmed by the presence of sharp peaks in the XRD patterns and different crystal phases were identified depending on the glass composition. Sr(PO3)2 crystals were found to precipitate in all the investigated glasses. As evidenced by the spectroscopic properties, the site of the Er3+ ions was not strongly affected by the heat treatment except for the fully crystallized glass ceramic which does not contain Al2O3, TiO2, and ZnO. An increase of the lifetime was also observed after the heat treatment of this glass. Therefore, we suspect that the Er3+ ions are incorporated in the precipitated crystals only in this glass ceramic.

Titania particles doped with various concentrations of Erbium were synthesized by the sol-gel method followed by different heat treatments. The shape and the grain growth of the particles were noticeably affected by the concentration of Erbium and the heat treatment conditions. An infrared emission at 1530 nm, as well as green and red up-conversion emissions at 550 and 670 nm, were observed under excitation at 976 nm from all of the synthesized particles. The emission spectra and lifetime values appeared to be strongly influenced by the presence of the different crystalline phases. This work presents important guidelines for the synthesis of functional Er3+-doped titania particles with controlled and tailored spectroscopic properties for photonic applications.

The effect of the incorporation of Er2O3-doped particles on the structural and luminescence properties of phosphate glasses was investigated. A series of different Er2O3-doped TiO2, ZnO, and ZrO2 microparticles was synthesized using soft chemistry and then added into various phosphate glasses after the melting at a lower temperature than the melting temperature. The compositional, morphological, and structural analyses of the particles-containing glasses were performed using elemental mapping by field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) with energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD). Additionally, the luminescence spectra and the lifetime values were measured to study the influence of the particles incorporation on the spectroscopic properties of the glasses. From the spectroscopic properties of the glasses with the composition 50P2O5-40SrO-10Na2O, a large amount of the Er2O3-doped particles is thought to dissolve during the glass melting. Conversely, the particles were found to survive in glasses with a composition 90NaPO3-(10 − x)Na2O-xNaF (with x = 0 and 10 mol %) due to their lower processing temperature, thus clearly showing that the direct doping method is a promising technique for the development of new active glasses.

Our study advances the development of new ternary silicate glasses for use as a designed cladding for semiconductor core optical fibers using molten core draw process. In order to fabricate high-quality hybrid fibers (homogeneous core shape, low amount of bubbles, low internal stress, no cracking), oxide glasses are the best choice as cladding materials. These glasses should be engineered with tailored thermal properties (coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and drawing temperature) so they match those of the semiconductor. Glasses in the system) with x = 0 and 10 and MO and in the system 50SiO 2 -10Na 2 O-(40 − y)B 2 O 3 -yTiO 2 with y = 0, 1.25, 2.5, and 5 were investigated. Their thermal properties were measured and discussed with regard to the glass structure analyzed using FTIR spectroscopy. Due to their rigid network, which leads to beneficial thermal properties including low CTE (~5 ppm K −1 ), the Ge-containing glass with x = 10 is a promising cladding candidate when preparing a Ge core fiber and the Ga or Zn-containing glasses when preparing an InAs core.

The aim of this study was to fabricate a bioactive optical fiber able to monitor “in situ” its reaction with the body through changes in its optical properties. Core and cladding preforms were prepared with the composition (97.25*(0.50P2O5‐0.40SrO‐0.10Na2O)‐2.5ZnO‐0.25Er2O3) and (98.25*(0.50P2O5‐0.40SrO‐0.10Na2O)‐1.75ZnO) (in mol%), respectively, and successfully drawn into a multimode core/clad optical fiber. Optical and near‐Infrared images assessed the proper light guiding properties of the fiber. The fibers favor the precipitation of a Ca‐P reactive layer at its surface concomitant with a reduction in the fiber diameter, when immersed in SBF, often assigned as a sign of bioactivity. It is clearly shown here that the bio‐response of the fiber upon immersion in SBF can be tracked from the decrease in the intensity of the Er3+ ions emission at 1.5 µm. This confirms that the newly developed optical fiber, which combines good optical properties with a suitable bioactive behavior, is a promising platform for the development of novel biomedical devices for biophotonic and photomedical applications. Finally, the successful splicing of the newly developed fiber with commercial optical fibers was an evidence of the possibility to integrate the newly developed phosphate fiber within existing components used in the field of biomedicine.

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