Ultraviolet Upconversion Luminescence in a Highly Transparent Triply-Doped Gd3+–Tm3+–Yb3+ Fluoride–Phosphate Glasses

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C Vol. 122; no. 4; pp. 2275 - 2284
• Main Authors: Galleani, Gustavo, Santagneli, Silvia Helena, Ledemi, Yannick, Messaddeq, Younès, Janka, Oliver, Pöttgen, Rainer, Eckert, Hellmut
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 01.02.2018
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b09562

We report near-infrared to ultraviolet (UV) upconversion emissions in triply-doped Gd3+–Tm3+–Yb3+ fluoride–phosphate glasses. Emission at 310 nm, originated from the Gd3+:6P7/2 → 8S7/2 transition, was observed for the first time in glasses. The high-purity glasses prepared exhibit extended transparency in the UV down to 200–250 nm. The mixed fluoride–phosphate environment of the rare-earth ions was characterized by means of NMR techniques using scandium as a diamagnetic mimic for the luminescent species, for which the ligand distribution was quantified by 45Sc­{31P} rotational echo double-resonance NMR. Both the intensity of the Gd3+ emission as well as those of the UV emissions at 290, 347, and 363 nm increase with increasing ratio of fluoride to phosphate ligands coordinating to the rare-earth ion.