Crystallisation effects on rare earth dopants in oxyfluoride glass ceramics

• Published in: Optical materials Vol. 22; no. 4; pp. 383 - 390
• Main Authors: Goutaland, F, Jander, P, Brocklesby, W.S, Dai, Guojun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.06.2003; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Exact sciences and technology; Fluorescence; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Glass ceramics; Glasses, quartz; Laser materials; Nanocrystals; Nanocrystals and nanoparticles; Optical materials; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Optical properties of low-dimensional, mesoscopic, and nanoscale materials and structures; Optics; Partitioning; Physics; Rare earth ions; Spectroscopy; Spectroscopy; Nanocrystals; Partitioning; Fluorescence; 78.67.Bf; Glass ceramics; Rare earth ions; Fluorescence spectrum; Oxyfluorides; Crystallization; Doped materials; Rare earth additions; Optical materials; Experimental study; Nanostructured materials; Nanocrystal; Luminescence decay
• ISSN: 0925-3467; 1873-1252
• DOI: 10.1016/S0925-3467(02)00373-7

Transparent oxyfluoride glass-ceramic materials are of significant interest for the production of new optoelectronic devices. In this paper we report measurements of the detailed spectroscopy of rare earth dopants in both an oxyfluoride transparent glass ceramic and its glass precursor. We show that several spectroscopically different sites exist for the rare earth even in the glass precursor material, where a significant amount of the rare earth is already coordinated with fluorine. In the glass-ceramic material, these glassy fluorine-coordinated sites are replaced with crystalline sites, but a significant fraction of the rare earth ions are still within the glass phase. The fraction of rare earth ion that is incorporated into the crystalline phase is estimated from the rare earth spectroscopy, and the role of the rare earth coordination in the precursor glass is discussed.