Fabrication of Tb/Eu co-doped borosilicate glasses for white-light LED and broadband photodetection

Abstract

We successfully prepared a series of rare-earth doped borosilicate glasses using the melt-quenching method, and carefully investigated the luminescent properties and the spectral modulation of Tb/Eu-cdoped borosilicate glasses under UV (200–400 nm) excitation. The results show that the prepared samples have the characteristics of broadband response, excellent transparency and tunable luminescence. By adjusting the excitation wavelength, the emissions of Tb3+, Eu2+ and Eu3+ ions are observed, which exhibit yellow-green, blue, red color and multi-color even white emissions, respectively. Moreover, the energy transfer between Tb3+ and Eu3+ ions in the codoped glasses is confirmed. Tb3+ absorbs a large number of solar-blind light, transfers to Eu3+ and results in intense visible emission in a wide waveband range. This makes the Tb/Eu codoped glass a desirable candidate for solar-blind light detections. The photodetection system was built and shows a strong and stable response to the UV light of 210–400 nm. Due to broad detection range, high sensitivity and stability, our results offer strong implications for the development of photodetection device for diverse applications.