Energy transfer induced photoluminescence improvement in Er3+/Ce3+/Yb3+ tri-doped tellurite glass

Abstract

Tellurite glasses doped with Er3+, Er3+/Ce3+ and Er3+/Ce3+/Yb3+, have been elaborated from the conventional melt-quenching method. It was found that both the photoluminescence (PL) intensity and the PL lifetime relative to the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition of Er3+ were found to increase with Ce3+ co-doping and Yb3+ tri-doping. We show that an efficient energy transfer can occur from Ce3+ and Yb3+ to Er3+. Efficient green (533 nm, 546 nm) emission spectra, associated to the 2H11/2 → 4I15/2, and 4S3/2 → 4I15/2 transitions of Er3+ respectively, were observed. By adding Ce3+ ions, the intensities of green up-conversion emissions were found to decrease hardly do to energy transfer rate of Er3+:4I11/2 → Ce3+:2F5/2. Band diagram energy is proposed to explain the up-converted PL, under 980 nm excitation, in mono-doped, co-doped and tri-doped glasses. The results suggest that Er3+/Yb3+/Ce3+ tri-doped tellurite glass may be a potential material for developing optical amplifiers and up-conversion optical devices.