• Anjos, Virgilio
• Bell, Maria Jose V.
• Seshadri, Meruva
• Santos, Ilza T. C.
• Messaddeq, Younes
• Lapointe, Jerome

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>In this paper, thermally stable lead-bismuth-borate glasses were doped with 0.5 mol% of Pr<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup> ions at several concentration levels of Yb<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup> ions. Structural characterizations were performed via Raman, differential scanning calorimetry, optical absorption and fluorescence spectra. The Judd–Ofelt intensity parameter, <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>_2</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msub><mml:mi>Ω</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula>, of Pr<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup> doped glass was comparatively higher than those from reported ones, which reflects the increase of co-valency and asymmetry of chemical bonds in the local environment of Pr<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup>. Near-infrared emission in 900–2200 nm wavelength range was recorded through 443 nm blue laser pumping. Visible to near-IR quantum cutting and concentration quenching mechanisms were discussed to understand the luminescent behaviour. Intense IR emission (<jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math> 1.0\, { {m}})</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>∼</mml:mo><mml:mn>1.0</mml:mn><mml:mspace /><mml:mi>μ</mml:mi><mml:mtext>m</mml:mtext><mml:mo>)</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> features generated by absorbing one visible photon leads to quantum efficiencies close to 128% in Pr<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup>/Yb<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup> co-doped samples which may improve the solar spectrum absorption and accordingly, increase the efficiency of c-Si solar cells. Emission cross-section, lifetime, figure of merit and gain bandwidth corresponding to Pr<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup>: <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math>^3F_2^3H_4</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow /><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msup><mml:msub><mml:mi>F</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msub><mml:msup><mml:mo>→</mml:mo><mml:mn>3</mml:mn></mml:msup><mml:msub><mml:mi>H</mml:mi><mml:mn>4</mml:mn></mml:msub></mml:mrow></mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula> (<jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math> 2.0\,</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>∼</mml:mo><mml:mn>2.0</mml:mn><mml:mspace /><mml:mi>μ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula>m) were comparatively reported suggesting that the glass with molar composition 0.5Pr<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup>/0.1Yb<jats:sup>3+</jats:sup> might be a potential candidate for <jats:inline-formula><jats:alternatives><jats:tex-math> 2.0\,</jats:tex-math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mo>∼</mml:mo><mml:mn>2.0</mml:mn><mml:mspace /><mml:mi>μ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math></jats:alternatives></jats:inline-formula>m laser operation with low pump threshold.</jats:p>

Topics

• glass
• glass
• differential scanning calorimetry
• quenching
• Bismuth
• luminescence