Spectroscopic evaluation of Zn(PO3)2:Dy3+ glass as an active medium for solid state yellow laser

• Zn(PO3)2:Dy3+ glass shows a high yellow-to-blue luminescence intensity ratio.
• Zn(PO3)2:Dy3+ glass exhibits a high luminescence quantum efficiency up to 80%.
• Zn(PO3)2:Dy3+ glass shows a very high yellow luminescence optical gain.

A spectroscopic investigation of zinc phosphate glass activated with 1.0, 5.0 and 10.0 mol% of Dy(PO3)3 is performed through absorption and luminescence spectra and decay times to study its potentialities for yellow laser operation upon excitation at 399 nm, which fits to the requirements of GaN LEDs. In the 1.0 mol% Dy(PO3)3-doped glass a quantum efficiency of 80 ± 5% was estimated for the dysprosium 4F9/2 level luminescence, the 4F9/2 → 6H13/2 yellow emission shows greater intensity than the 4F9/2 → 6H15/2 blue emission, as well as a very high optical gain, which might make this glass phosphor a promising gain medium for solid state yellow laser pumped by GaN LEDs.