Influence of Eu<sup>3+</sup> 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 (Eu3+) doped lithiumborosufophosphate glasses with composition 15Li2O-30B2O3-15SO3-(40-𝑥)P2O5-𝑥Eu2O3 (where 𝑥 = 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 7F0→7F6 (2095 nm). Incorporation of Eu3+ 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.Keywords: Borosulfophosphate glasses, Europium ions, physical properties, optical properties and photoluminescence