Structural, thermal and spectroscopic properties of highly Er3+-doped novel oxyfluoride glasses for photonic application

•Er3+-doped novel oxyfluoride glasses have been prepared by melt quenching technique.•Structural, thermal and spectroscopic properties have been carried out.•SALSFEr glasses exhibit intense green and weak red emissions at 365 nm excitation.•Major laser transition for Er3+ ion in SALSFEr glasses is 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 (1.53 μm).•These results suggest the possibility of using SALSFEr glasses as photonic devices.

The Er3+-doped novel oxyfluoride glasses of composition (43 − x)SiO2–10Al2O3–24LiF–23SrF2–xEr2O3, where x = 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 6.0 mol%, have been prepared by conventional melt quenching technique and are characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential thermal analysis (DTA), Raman, Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) analysis, optical absorption spectra, visible (vis) and near-infrared (NIR) emission spectra measurements. Judd–Ofelt (JO) intensity parameters (Ωλ, λ = 2, 4 and 6) have been derived from the absorption spectrum of 1.0 mol% Er2O3 doped glass and are in turn used to calculate radiative properties for the important luminescent levels of Er3+ ions. The studied glasses show intense green and weak red visible emissions under 365 nm excitation. The decrease in visible emission intensities with concentration of Er3+ ions has been explained due to energy transfer processes between Er3+ ions. Upon excitation at 980 nm laser diode, an intense 1.53 μm NIR emission has been observed with the maximum full width at half maximum (FWHM) for Er3+-doped oxyfluoride glasses. The higher Er3+ ion doping capability and relatively high gain and broad emission at 1.5 μm are the most notable features of these glasses to realize efficient short-length optical amplifiers.

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