Influence of Eu³⁺ dopant on physical and optical properties of lithium-borosulfophosphate glasses

Abstract

Multi-components glass host with enhanced physical and optical features are greatly demanding for various photonics and optoelectronics devices. Selection of suitable glass former, modifier, and dopant ions with optimized composition is a key concern in the fabrication of novel optical glass materials for the aforementioned purpose. Thus, this work reports the convectional melt quench synthesis of europium (Eu 3+ ) doped lithiumborosufophosphate glasses with composition 15Li2O-30B2O3-15SO3-(40-)P2O5-Eu2O3 (where = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 in mol%). The effect of P2O5 substitution by Eu2O3 on their physical (density, molar volume, ion concentration, polaron radius, inter-nuclear distance and field strength) and optical properties was examined. The amorphous nature of the samples was confirmed by XRD diffraction pattern. The density of glass samples was slightly increased with increasing concentration of Eu2O3. Such trend is attributed to the higher molecular weight of Eu2O3 (351.926 g/mol) than P2O5 (141.9445 g/mol). The room temperature absorption spectra revealed four weak bands in the UV-Vis range and two strong bands in the NIR range with 1.0 mol% glass sample possessing the highest intensity at 7 F0→ 7 F6 (2095 nm). Incorporation of Eu 3+ ion significantly enhanced the glass absorbance and the physical properties. The results on high refractive index (~2.3), polarizability and non-linear physical features suggest that these glasses are potential for photonics and solid-state laser applications.

Elucidating the impact of Dy2O3 substitution on structure, optical, photoluminescence and mechanical properties of borosilicate glass

“…The density of glass is a crucial physical characteristic that is influenced by i) the atomic weight and ii) the level of compactness within the vitreous network. A high degree of varying density results in modifications to the structure, such as changes in geometric arrangement coordination number, crosslinking density, and diameters of interstitial sites within the glass lattice [24,25]. There are changes in both the molar volume and density of the prepared glass when Dy 2 O 3 is added, which can be seen in table 1.…”