Spectroscopic Properties of Erbium-Doped Oxyfluoride Phospho-Tellurite Glass and Transparent Glass-Ceramic Containing BaF2 Nanocrystals.

Magdalena Lesniak,Marcin Kochanowicz,Marta Kuwik,Gabriela Mach,Dominik Dorosz,Joanna Pisarska,Wojciech A Pisarski,Agata Baranowska,Jacek Zmojda,Piotr Miluski

doi:10.3390/ma12203429

Magdalena Lesniak, Marcin Kochanowicz + Show 8 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ma12203429

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Abstract

The ErF3-doped oxyfluoride phospho-tellurite glasses in the (40-x) TeO2-10P2O5-45 (BaF2-ZnF2) -5Na2O-xErF3 system (where x = 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, and 1.25 mol%) have been prepared by the conventional melt-quenching method. The effect of erbium trifluoride addition on thermal, structure, and spectroscopic properties of oxyfluoride phospho-tellurite precursor glass was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR), and Raman spectroscopy as well as emission measurements, respectively. The DSC curves were used to investigate characteristic temperatures and thermal stability of the precursor glass doped with varying content of ErF3. FTIR and Raman spectra were introduced to characterize the evolution of structure and phonon energy of the glasses. It was found that the addition of ErF3 up to 1.25 mol% into the chemical composition of phospho-tellurite precursor glass enhanced 2.7 µm emission and upconversion. By controlled heat-treatment process of the host glass doped with the highest content of erbium trifluoride (1.25 mol%), transparent erbium-doped phospho-tellurite glass-ceramic (GC) was obtained. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the presence of BaF2 nanocrystals with the average 16 nm diameter in a glass matrix. Moreover, MIR, NIR, and UC emissions of the glass-ceramic were discussed in detail and compared to the spectroscopic properties of the glass doped with 1.25 mol% of ErF3 (the base glass).

Highlights

Since Wang reported for the first time in the literature the method of obtaining transparent oxyfluoride glass-ceramic doped with Er3+ and Yb3+ ions [1], the dynamic development of research on transparent rare-earth-doped (RED) oxyfluoride glass-ceramics (GC) with fluoride nanocrystals has been noted [2,3,4,5]
Oxyfluoride glass-ceramics are more appropriate for practical applications compared to oxide and fluoride glasses, because the glass-ceramics have the lower phonon energy than the oxide glasses and excellent chemical durability and mechanical strength compared to the fluoride glasses
An increase in the glass transition temperature of glasses with the addition of increase of ErF3 into the chemical composition of precursor glass indicated a stronger ionic cross-linking between Er3+ and non-bridging oxygens (NBO) atom

Summary

Introduction

Since Wang reported for the first time in the literature the method of obtaining transparent oxyfluoride glass-ceramic doped with Er3+ and Yb3+ ions [1], the dynamic development of research on transparent rare-earth-doped (RED) oxyfluoride glass-ceramics (GC) with fluoride nanocrystals has been noted [2,3,4,5]. The RED glass-ceramics with nanocrystals in the glass matrix can be obtained as a result of controlled heat treatment above the glass transition temperature of oxide [8,9,10] and oxyfluoride glasses [11,12]. In this method, the rare-earth ions are incorporated into the nanocrystals by the diffusion-controlled process, that is dependent on the temperature. According to the literature [11,12], to obtain the optimum dopant concentration in the nanocrystals and the highest luminescence efficiency, the precise control of the rare-earth concentration and crystallization process is required

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