Physical and Luminescence Studies of Er³⁺-Doped into Borate Glass for IR Lighting Application

Abstract

The gadolinium tungsten borate glasses doped with Er3+ were prepared by melt quenching technique for study in physical, absorption and luminescence properties. The glass composition (30-x) B2O3 − 27.5 Gd2O3 − 42.5 WO3–x Er2O3, where x = 0.1, 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 mol%. The results show that doping Er2O3 in higher concentration make the glass density and molar volume increases. The absorption spectra indicate the photon absorbing of Er3+ in visible light and near-infrared region. The emission spectra of these glasses have been recorded under 275 nm (Gd3+) and 380 nm (Er3+) excitation wavelength and it is observed that these glasses show green 550 nm and red 577 nm. NIR photoluminescence under 311 nm (Gd3+), 524 nm (Er3+) and 978 nm (Er3+), excitation was measured of glass in the region 1400–1700 nm. NIR emissions show a peak centered at 1543 nm. The luminescence of an erbium-doped glass was investigated at room temperature. In addition, mechanisms of the luminescence by multiphoton absorption and energy transfer processes are discussed based on the energy-level diagram of Er3+ and luminescence spectra. These results benefit for efficient short and conventional-length optical amplifiers and tunable lasers.