Time-resolved and fluorescence excitation-emission matrix measurements of lanthanide (Gd3+, Tb3+ and Dy3+) doped silver-zinc borate glasses

Abstract

This paper reports the time-resolved luminescence and excitation-emission matrix measurements of three different lanthanide ions Gadolinium, Gd3+ (GdG), Terbium, Tb3+ (TbG) and Dysprosium, Dy3+(DyG) doped silver-zinc borate glasses. The GdG and TbG glasses were excited at 267 nm and 371 nm, respectively, and time-resolved luminescence measurements used to evaluate how the randomness of the network can influence the lanthanide ion emission. The GdG glass exhibited ultraviolet radiation (UVR) at around 310 nm with a 6P7/2 → 8S7/2 transition. Similarly, a sharp band at 545 nm with a 5D4 → 7F5 transition provided a bright green coloured emission from the TbG glass. To further elucidate the Dy3+ emission, steady-state luminescence (SSL), excitation-emission matrix (EEM) studies and decay associated spectra (DAS) were obtained. These showed a bright yellow emission transition (4F7/2 → 6H9/2), 571 nm composed of species with decay times of 0.062, 0.148, 0.337 and 0.701 ms. Among them, an ideal decay time was observed at 0.701 ms along with a dependency of the DyG glass lifetimes on the emission intensity.