S+E+O-band luminescence and enhancement in Nd3+/Tm3+/Ce3+ doped tellurite glass

A new, to our knowledge, doped combination of Nd 3+ , Tm 3+ , and Ce 3+ ions was developed in tellurite glass with a fundamental composition of TeO 2 -ZnO-WO 3 -Bi 2 O 3 , and the structural, thermal, and especially near-infrared (NIR) luminescent properties in O-, E-, and S-bands were explored. The XRD pattern confirmed the amorphous nature of synthesized tellurite glass, the Raman spectrum disclosed different structural units that make up the glass network, the DSC curve confirmed good host thermal stability, while XPS measurement revealed that cerium mainly exists in the trivalent form in a glass network. Upon being pumped with an 808 nm laser, a 1.34 µm band fluorescence from Nd 3+ : 4 F 3/2 level→ 4 I 13/2 level transition and a 1.46 µm band fluorescence from Tm 3+ : 3 H 4 level→ 3 F 4 level transition were observed, which in turn formed a wide luminescence band from 1260 to 1560 nm in the tellurite glass containing both Nd 3+ and Tm 3+ ions owing to their spectral overlapping. The measured full width at half maximum (FWHM) for the aforementioned wideband luminescence was about 203 nm with Nd 2 O 3 and Tm 2 O 3 concentrations of 0.015 mol. % and 0.5 mol. %, respectively, and exhibited a further ∼60% increase in peak intensity after the incorporation of 0.4 mol. % amount of CeO 2 , which arises from the phenomena of cross relaxation and energy transfer among the three trivalent rare earth ions. The experimental evidence presented in this work shows that tellurite glass containing Nd 3+ , Tm 3+ , and Ce 3+ has potential as an active material for S-, E-, and O-band wideband luminescence.