Effects of Ce3+ on the spectroscopic properties of transparent phosphate glass ceramics co-doped with Er3+/Yb3+

We have prepared Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped transparent phosphate glass ceramics by the high-temperature melting technique, and demonstrated the influence of energy acceptors Ce3+ ions on the up-conversion and 1.54 μm emission properties of Er3+. The energy transfer mechanism is discussed based on the energy matching and the energy level structure. The phonon-assisted energy transfer between Er3+ and Ce3+ favors population feeding from the 4I11/2 to the 4I13/2 level, and therefore drastically decreases the up-conversion emission intensity of Er3+. Meanwhile, 1.54 μm fluorescence enhances greatly with the introduction of Ce3+ ions at the proper concentration.