EPR, optical absorption and luminescence studies of Cr3+-doped antimony phosphate glasses

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Effect of Fe impurity on the optical loss of Nd-doped phosphate laser glass

The optical loss coefficient at 1053-nm wavelength, influenced by Fe ions in N31-type Nd-doped phosphate laser glass, was determined precisely and analyzed in detail. It is found that the optical loss coefficient per unit of Fe concentration (cm^(-1)/ppmw) increases with Fe concentration in the range of 0---300 ppmw, but it approaches a constant as the Fe concentration is larger than 300 ppmw. Such a concentration effect is due to a shift in the redox equilibrium between Fe3+ and Fe2+ ions in the glass. The effect of oxygen pressure, temperature, and variable valence states of other metal ions in glass samples on the optical loss is also discussed.

Spectroscopic properties of neodymium doped high silica glass and aluminum codoping effects on the enhancement of fluorescence emission

Nd3+ -codoped and Al3+-Nd3+-codoped high silica glasses have been prepared by sintering nanoporous glasses impregnated with Nd3+ stop and Al3+ ions. The Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters Omega(2,4,6) of Nd3+-doped high silica glasses were obtained and used to analyze aluminum codoping effects. Fluorescence properties of Nd3+-doped high silica glasses strongly depend on the Al3+ concentration. While Nd3+ ion absorption and emission intensities of obviously increase when aluminum is added to Nd3+-doped high silica glasses, fluorescence lifetimes decrease and aluminum codoping has almost no influence on the radiative quantum efficiencies. This indicates that aluminum codoping is responsible for an anti-quenching effect through a local modification of rare-earth environments rather than through physical cluster dispersion.

The influence of OH groups on laser performance in phosphate glasses

Because of the influence of OH groups in phosphate glasses on the radiation of rare-earth ions, the laser performance is degraded. The laser efficiency and the small signal gain experiment of several phosphate glass samples have been done, the concentration of OH groups in glasses was calculated from the measured absorption coefficient at 3.47 μm. It is shown that the concentration of OH groups in phosphate glasses can seriously influence the laser output characteristics, and the OH groups have worse influence on the laser amplifier than laser oscillator.

Effect of OH- content on emission properties in Er3+-doped tellurite glasses

A series of tellurite glasses of composition, 75TeO(2)-20ZnO-(5 - x)La2O3-xEr(2)O(3) (x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 mol%) with different hydroxl content were prepared. The effect of Er3+ and OH- groups concentration on the emission properties of Er3+: I-4(13/2) -> I-4(15/2) transition in tellurite glasses was investigated. The constant KOH-Er for Er3+ in tellurite glasses, which represents the strength of interaction between Er3+ and OH- groups in the case of energy migration, was about 14 x 10(-19) cm(4) s(-1). The interaction parameter C-Er,C-Er for the migration rate of Er3+ : 4I(13/2) -> I-4(13/2) transition in tellurite glass was 46 x 10(-40) cm(2), which indicates that concentration quenching in Er3+-doped modified tellurite glass for a given Er3+ concentration is much stronger than in silicate and phosphate glasses. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced broadband near-infrared luminescence and optical amplification in Yb-Bi codoped phosphate glasses

Yb-Bi codoped phosphate glass was prepared and its properties were compared with Bi-doped phosphate glass. The broadband infrared luminescence intensity from Yb-Bi codoped glass was similar to 32 times stronger than that of Bi-doped glass. The single-pass optical amplification was measured on a traditional two-wave mixing configuration. No optical amplification was observed in Bi-doped glass, while apparent broadband optical amplification between 1272 and 1336 nm was observed from Yb-Bi codoped glass with 980 nm laser diode excitation. The highest gain coefficient at 1272 nm of Yb-Bi codoped glass reached to 2.62 cm(-1). Yb-Bi codoped phosphate glass is a promising material for broadband optical amplification. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Effect of PbS impurity on crystallization mechanism of phosphate glasses studied by differential scanning calorimetry

In this work, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study effect of PbS impurity on crystallization mechanism of phosphate glasses. Bulk glasses presented one crystallization peak while powdered glasses presented two distinct crystallization peaks. For both undoped and doped glasses were determined the activation energies for the crystallization and the Avrami n parameters. The activation energies for undoped phosphate glass were 336 +/- 6 and 213 +/- 3 kJ mol(-1), respectively, associated with first and second crystallization peaks. For doped glass, the obtained energies were 373 +/- 9 and 286 +/- 7 kJ mol(-1). The calculated Avrami parameters, based on first crystallization peaks, for undoped and doped glasses were 2.25 +/- 0.01 and 1.75 +/- 0.02, respectively. These values suggest that the first DSC peak, in both glasses, may be associated with surface crystallization. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Energy upconversion luminescence in neodymium-doped tellurite glass

Infrared-to-visible upconversion luminescence emission in Nd3+-doped 60TeO(2)-10GeO(2)-10K(2)O-10Li(2)O-10Nb(2)O(5) tellurite glasses under cw excitation around 800 nm is investigated. Blue (430, and 475 nm), green (5 0 nm) and yellow-orange (590 nm) energy upconversion emission owing to the P-2(1/2) --> I-4(j) (j=9/2, 11/2, 13/2 and 15/2) transitions of the Nd3+ ions, respectively, was recorded. The dependence of the upconversion intensity upon the excitation wavelength and pump power is also studied. The upconversion excitation mechanism responsible for the observed emission signals is attributed to stepwise multiphoton absorption. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. B.V. All rights reserved.

Violet-blue emissions due to frequency up-conversion in Nd3+-doped fluoroindate glasses

We report the observation of intense frequency up-conversion in Nd3+-doped fluoroindate glasses pumped by the second harmonic of a cw mode-locked Nd: YAG laser. Mechanisms for generating the observed emissions are discussed.

Effects of rare-earth co-doping on the local structure of rare-earth phosphate glasses using high and low energy X-ray diffraction

Rare-earth co-doping in inorganic materials has a long-held tradition of facilitating highly desirable optoelectronic properties for their application to the laser industry. This study concentrates specifically on rare-earth phosphate glasses, (R2O3)x(R'2O3)y(P2O5)1-(x+y), where (R, R') denotes (Ce, Er) or (La, Nd) co-doping and the total rare-earth composition corresponds to a range between metaphosphate, RP3O9, and ultraphosphate, RP5O14. Thereupon, the effects of rare-earth co-doping on the local structure are assessed at the atomic level. Pair-distribution function analysis of high-energy X-ray diffraction data (Qmax = 28 Å-1) is employed to make this assessment. Results reveal a stark structural invariance to rare-earth co-doping which bears testament to the open-framework and rigid nature of these glasses. A range of desirable attributes of these glasses unfold from this finding; in particular, a structural simplicity that will enable facile molecular engineering of rare-earth phosphate glasses with 'dial-up' lasing properties. When considered together with other factors, this finding also demonstrates additional prospects for these co-doped rare-earth phosphate glasses in nuclear waste storage applications. This study also reveals, for the first time, the ability to distinguish between P-O and PO bonding in these rare-earth phosphate glasses from X-ray diffraction data in a fully quantitative manner. Complementary analysis of high-energy X-ray diffraction data on single rare-earth phosphate glasses of similar rare-earth composition to the co-doped materials is also presented in this context. In a technical sense, all high-energy X-ray diffraction data on these glasses are compared with analogous low-energy diffraction data; their salient differences reveal distinct advantages of high-energy X-ray diffraction data for the study of amorphous materials. © 2013 The Owner Societies.

Photocatalytic treatment of municipal wastewater using modified neodymium doped TiO2 hybrid nanoparticles

Photocatalytic degradation of municipal wastewater was investigated using reagent grade TiO2 and modified neodymium doped TiO2 hybrid nanoparticles. For the first time, surface modification of Nd3+ doped TiO2 hybrid nanoparticles were carried out with n-butylamine as surface modifier under mild hydrothermal conditions. The modified nanoparticles obtained were characterized by Powder XRD, FTIR, DLS, TEM, BET surface area, zeta potential and UV-Vis Spectroscopy. The characterization results indicated better morphology, particle size distribution and low agglomeration of the nanoparticles synthesized. It was found that photodegradation of wastewater using surface modified neodymium doped TiO2 nanoparticles was more compared to pure TiO2, which can be attributed to the doping and modification with n-butylamine.

The molecular dynamics study of lithium ion conduction in phosphate glasses and the role of non-bridging oxygen

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of lithium phosphate (Li2O-P2O5) glasses with varying Li2O content has been carried out. Two different P-O distances corresponding to phosphorus coordination with bridging oxygen (BO) and non-bridging oxygen (NBO) were identified in the simulated glasses. NBO-BO interconversion or bond switching was noted, which results in a dynamic equilibration of the tetrahedral phosphate units (P-n, n = 1,3 indicates the number of bridging oxygen atoms in the coordination of phosphorus). The NBO-BO bond switching is mildly activated with an effective activation barrier of 0.03-0.05 eV. Lithium ion jumps do not appear to be strongly coupled to bond switching. But the number of Li+ ions coordinated to an optimum number of NBOs and the number of Li+ ions jumping out of their sites appear to be correlated. Detailed analysis was made of the dynamics of P-n species and new insights have been obtained regarding ion migration in network-modified phosphate glasses.