Effect of ZnO Addition and of Alpha Particle Irradiation on Various Properties of Er3+, Yb3+ Doped Phosphate Glasses

Abstract

Featured Application: The newly developed Er 3+ , Yb 3+ doped phosphate glasses presented in this paper could find many different applications in space, telecommunications, LIDAR, spectroscopy and bioimaging, just to cite a few.Abstract: New Er 3+ , Yb 3+ codoped phosphate glasses with the (98-x) (0.50P 2 O 5 -0.40SrO-0.10Na 2 O) -0.5Er 2 O 3 -1.5Yb 2 O 3 -xZnO (in mol %) composition were prepared by melting process with up to 10 mol % of ZnO. The impact of the changes in the glass composition on the thermal, optical, structural properties was investigated. Using IR and Raman spectroscopies, we confirmed that the addition of ZnO up to 10 mol % leads to a depolymerization of the network without having a significant impact on the Er 3+ and Yb 3+ sites. We also discuss the effect of alpha particles irradiation. The glass with 2.5 mol % of ZnO was irradiated with 3 MeV alpha particles and a total fluence of 10 12 α/cm 2 . After irradiation, this glass exhibits surface expansion (measured at~200 nm, 1.5 months after the irradiation) and an increase in the surface roughness. The alpha particles irradiation is suspected to lead to changes in the spectroscopic properties of the glass. Finally, the photo-response of the glass was found to be reversible.

Super-luminescence and spectral hole burning effect in ultra-short length Er/Yb-doped phosphate fiber

“…One can notice that the drawing process leads to a shift of the bands to lower wavenumber, a small increase in intensity of the band in the 700-800 cm −1 range and a decrease in intensity of the bands at 1080 and 1250 cm −1 . A complete attribution of the IR bands can be found in [20,24]. The variation in intensity and shift of the IR bands after drawing indicates that minor change in the structure of the glass occurs during fiber drawing.…”

“…The absorption cross-section of the glass bulk at 980 and 1550nm were estimated from the absorption coefficient at 8.30·10 −21 and 5.79·10 −21 cm 2 , respectively, at ± 10% [24]. The luminescence lifetime for 4 I 13/2 state of Er 3+ ions was measured as (3.47 ± 0.02) ms [24].…”

“…The absorption cross-section of the glass bulk at 980 and 1550nm were estimated from the absorption coefficient at 8.30·10 −21 and 5.79·10 −21 cm 2 , respectively, at ± 10% [24]. The luminescence lifetime for 4 I 13/2 state of Er 3+ ions was measured as (3.47 ± 0.02) ms [24]. The potential performance of the light source based on erbium-glass material is determined by its emission and absorption properties, due to its three-level nature of their spectral shape and population inversion.…”

Impact of Ag2O Content on the Optical and Spectroscopic Properties of Fluoro-Phosphate Glasses

“…Perkin Elmer lambda 1050 spectrophotometer (PerkinElmer Inc., Waltham, MA, USA) was used for the measurement of the UV–Vis near-infrared (NIR) absorption spectra. The absorption cross section σ a (λ) was calculated using the following equation [12]: σa(λ)=αa(λ)N where αa(λ) is the absorption coefficient at λ and N is the concentration of Er 3+ ions (ions/cm 3 ) calculated from the glass density.…”

Radiation effects on phosphate glasses: Review

“…. Similar increase in the surface roughness was reported after alpha particles irradiation of the glasses within the P 2 O 5 ‐SrO‐Na 2 O‐ZnO system which was found to increase also the intensity of the Er 3+ emission at 1.5 µm .…”