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

Marwa Ennouri; Luukas Kuusela; Ifa Jlassi; Bernard Gelloz; Laeticia Petit; Habib Elhouichet

doi:10.3390/ma12213516

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

Materials (Basel). 2019 Oct 26;12(21):3516. doi: 10.3390/ma12213516.

Authors

Marwa Ennouri¹, Luukas Kuusela², Ifa Jlassi¹, Bernard Gelloz³, Laeticia Petit², Habib Elhouichet^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratoire de Caractérisations, Applications et Modélisation des Matériaux LR18ES08, Sciences Faculty of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis 2092, Tunisia.
² Photonics Laboratory, Tampere University, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland.
³ Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, 2-24-16 Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 464-8603, Japan.
⁴ Physics Department, College of Sciences, University of Bisha, P.B. 551, Bisha 61922, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Sciences Faculty of Tunis, University of Tunis El Manar, Tunis 2092, Tunisia.

Abstract

Glasses with the system (84.60-x) NaPO₃-5 ZnO-(9.40-x) NaF-x Ag₂O-1 Er₂O₃, (x = 0, 2, 4, and 6) (mol%) were synthesized by the conventional melt-quenching method. The impact of the addition of Ag₂O on the physical, thermal, structural, and optical properties of the glasses is discussed. The Judd-Oflet analysis was used to evaluate the radiative properties of the emission transitions of the glasses. The enhancement of luminescence properties due to Ag₂O is discussed in terms of consequent changes in the local electromagnetic field, symmetry, and the ligand field around the Er³⁺ ion. The heat treatment of the glass was performed in order to precipitate Ag nanoparticles (NPs), which form as a layer at the surface of the heat-treated glasses as confirmed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The Ag NPs were found to increase the intensity of the emission at 1.5 µm.

Keywords: Ag nanoclusters; energy transfer; erbium; fluoro-phosphate glasses; optical gain.