Effect of Borate and Silicate Glass on Nd3+ iondoped Al2O3-Li2O- P2O5 Glass for Light Sensing Application

Abstract

Nd³⁺: crystal is widely used as an optical gain medium in many applications such as light sensing, lasing medium, telecommunication, etc. Unfortunately, crystal development is an uneasy fabrication and high-cost production. Nowadays, investigation of glass as a host matrix of the gain medium is more attractive due to their potential for replacing crystal. Nd³⁺ion-doped various glasses such as B2O3, TeO2, P2O5and SiO2 have been widely investigated. However, the effect of B2O3 and SiO2 in Nd³⁺ion-doped phosphate glass has not been observed in detail. In this work, glass medium with the formula of 60P2O5:15B2O3:10Al2O3:13Li2O:2Nd2O3 (PBAlLiNd) and 60P2O5:15SiO2:10Al2O3:13Li2O:2Nd2O3 (PSAlLiNd) fabricated by melt and quenching technique. This technique is a simple and inexpensive method so that it is one of the solutions to decrease the cost production. The glass sample was melted at 1200 °C for 180 minutes and annealed at 500 °C for 180 minutes. The physical (density and molar volume), optical, luminescence (excitation and emission spectra) and radiative properties of the glass sample investigated for understanding their sensing and lasing potential. From the collected data, the glass medium strongly emits 1062 nm excited by 582 nm. The prepared glass is suitable for light sensing, especially PSAlLiNd glass due to the higher luminescence intensity. Meanwhile, the radiative properties of PBAlLiNd and PSAlLiNd were determined by the Judd-Ofelt theory. From all results analysis, PSAlLiNd glass possesses a higher stimulated emission cross section and radiative transition probability than PBAlLiNd glass. Therefore, PSAlLiNd glass is a more promising material for 1062 nm laser application. The replacing B2O3 by SiO2 in the phosphate glass system increases the luminescence and radiative properties due to the low phonon energy of SiO2 than B2O3.