Luminescence of Fluorochlorozirconate Glasses Doped with Manganese Ions

Abstract

A series of fluorochlorozirconate glasses doped with manganese ions is synthesized and investigated as possible red‐emitting phosphors in comparison with conventional green‐emitting fluorozirconate glasses doped with Mn2+. It is found that the replacement of fluorine by chlorine ions results in broadening and a long‐wavelength shift of the manganese luminescence band into the red region (peaked at 615 nm) although the emission spectrum still has some contribution of the green sub‐band. It turns out also that decay kinetics of luminescence from fluorochlorozirconate glasses becomes nonexponential in contrast to single‐exponential decay observed for green luminescence from Mn2+‐doped fluorozirconate glasses. The observation of two emission components in the luminescence spectrum of fluorochlorozirconate glasses is interpreted as being due to the presence of two Mn2+ emission centers in different local environments. The presence of 2+ valence states of manganese ions in both types of glasses is confirmed by recording X‐ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra at Mn L2,3 edge. Substitution of F− by Cl− ions in anion sites neighboring to Mn2+, leads to a significant rearrangement of the local environment of Mn2+ ions, which results in the long‐wavelength shift of Mn2+ emission spectrum.