Europium-doped lead fluoroborate glasses: Structural, thermal and optical investigations

Structural, thermal and optical properties of Eu-doped lead fluoroborate glasses have been investigated as a function of PbF2 concentration. The values of the phonon energy of the host, the glass transition temperature and the fluorescence intensity ratio of the 5D0–7F2 to 5D0–7F1 transition of Eu ions considerably decrease, whereas 5D0 luminescence lifetime slightly increases with increasing PbF2 concentration. Incorporation of PbF2 results in structural and spectroscopic changes around Eu3+ ions and surrounding ligands, which were analyzed in detail using by Raman, IR, DSC and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy.