Low-temperature Er3+ emission in Ge–S–Ga glasses excited by host absorption

The photoluminescence (PL) of a series of (GeS2)80(Ga2S3)20 glasses doped with different amounts of Er (0.17, 0.35, 0.52, 1.05 and 1.39 at.%) at 77 and 4.2 K has been studied. The influence of the temperature on the emission cross-section of the PL bands at ∼1540, 980 and 820 nm under host excitation has been defined. A quenching effect of the host photoluminescence has been established from the compositional dependence of the PL intensity. It has been found that the present Er3+-doped Ge–S–Ga glasses posses PL lifetime values about 3.25 ms.