SiO2-SnO2:Er3+ Glass-Ceramic Monoliths

Lam Tran,Stefano Varas,Giancarlo Righini,Maurizio Ferrari,Cristina Armellini,Lidia Zur,Anna Lukowiak,Alessandro Chiasera,Daniele Zonta,Damiano Massella

doi:10.3390/app8081335

Abstract

The development of efficient luminescent systems, such as microcavities, solid-state lasers, integrated optical amplifiers, and optical sensors is the main topic in glass photonics. The building blocks of these systems are glass-ceramics activated by rare-earth ions because they exhibit specific morphologic, structural, and spectroscopic properties. Among various materials that could be used as nanocrystals to be imbedded in a silica matrix, tin dioxide presents some interesting peculiarities, e.g., the presence of tin dioxide nanocrystals allows an increase in both solubility and emission of rare-earth ions. Here, we focus our attention on Er3+—doped silica—tin dioxide photonic glass-ceramics fabricated by a sol-gel route. Although the SiO2-SnO2:Er3+ could be fabricated in different forms, such as thin films, monoliths, and planar waveguides, we herein limit ourselves to the monoliths. The effective role of tin dioxide as a luminescence sensitizer for Er3+ ions is confirmed by spectroscopic measurements and detailed fabrication protocols are discussed.

Highlights

Looking at the literature from the last few years, it is evident that glass-based rare-earth-activated optical structures represent the technological pillar of a huge of photonic applications covering health and biology, structural engineering, environment monitoring systems, and quantum technologies.Among different glass-based systems, a strategic place is assigned to transparent glass-ceramics andAppl
The key to making the spectroscopic properties of the glass-ceramics very attractive for photonic applications is to activate the nanocrystals by using rare-earth ions as luminescent species [4]
We focus on glass-ceramic photonic systems based on rare-earth activated

Summary

Introduction

Looking at the literature from the last few years, it is evident that glass-based rare-earth-activated optical structures represent the technological pillar of a huge of photonic applications covering health and biology, structural engineering, environment monitoring systems, and quantum technologies.Among different glass-based systems, a strategic place is assigned to transparent glass-ceramics andAppl. Looking at the literature from the last few years, it is evident that glass-based rare-earth-activated optical structures represent the technological pillar of a huge of photonic applications covering health and biology, structural engineering, environment monitoring systems, and quantum technologies. Sci. 2018, 8, 1335 nanocomposite materials, which offer specific characteristics of capital importance in photonics [1,2,3]. These two-phase materials are constituted by nanocrystals or nanoparticles dispersed in a glassy matrix. The key to making the spectroscopic properties of the glass-ceramics very attractive for photonic applications is to activate the nanocrystals by using rare-earth ions as luminescent species [4]. We focus on glass-ceramic photonic systems based on rare-earth activated

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Conclusion