Abstract
It has been an open question whether Nd3+ ions are incorporated into the crystalline phase in oxyfluoride glass ceramics or not. Moreover, relative research has indicated that spectra characters display minor differences between before and after heat treatment in oxyfluoride glass compared to similar Er3+-, Yb3+-, Tm3+-, Eu3+-, etc.-doped materials. Here, we have studied the distribution of Nd3+ ions in oxyfluoride glass ceramics by X-ray diffraction quantitative analysis and found that almost none of the Nd3+ ions can be incorporated into the crystalline phase. In order to confirm the rationality of the process, the conventional mathematical calculation and energy-dispersive spectrometry line scanning are employed, which show good consistency. The distribution of Nd3+ ions in oxyfluoride glass ceramics reported here is significant for further optical investigations and applications of rare-earth doped oxyfluoride glass ceramics.
Highlights
Nd3+ is always considered to be one of the most efficient rare-earth (RE) ions to generate laser operation around 1.06 μm in different hosts, such as crystals and glasses
The results indicated that Nd3+ ions were excluded from the crystalline phase and accumulated into the residual glass matrix in the glass ceramics (GCs)
The differences between Precursor glasses (PGs) and GCs indicate that the crystallization process takes place in the glass matrix under thermal treatment, and the characteristic diffraction peaks of pure cubic β-PbF2 (JCPDS: 06–0251) emerge
Summary
Nd3+ is always considered to be one of the most efficient rare-earth (RE) ions to generate laser operation around 1.06 μm in different hosts, such as crystals and glasses. In the 1970s, transparent glass ceramics (GCs) with nanocrystals (NCs) of about 50 nm were originally suggested to be used as laser host materials [1,2]. In subsequent oxide glass system studies, the fluorescence lifetimes and absorption spectra of Nd3+ ions were measured in neodymium-doped glasses and GCs to investigate the distribution of the Nd3+ ions [3]. The results indicated that Nd3+ ions were excluded from the crystalline phase and accumulated into the residual glass matrix in the GCs. in a similar glass system, Dymnikov et al [4] and Kang et al [5], respectively, found that Nd3+ ions exhibited fairly different distribution tendencies when the crystalline phase varied in glass ceramics by performing fluorescence, absorption, and Judd-Ofelt analyses.
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