Analysis of the luminescent spectra of Eu3+ in glasses

The spectroscopy properties of lanthanide ions in glasses differ remarkably from crystal and powder samples due to superposition of transitions from many ions with different local environments. Eu3+ ions were doped in lead-borosilicate and boro-tellurite glass samples to probe the structural information and to reveal their effects on the luminescent properties of lanthanide ions. Three emission peaks were observed for 5D0→7F0 transition, with peak energies linearly dependent on the excitation wavelengths, and correlation between the intensity ratio of 5D0→7F0 versus 5D0→7F2 and the width of 7F1 was observed. The former indicates that there are three subsets of Eu3+ sites in the samples, with 7F0 being pushed downwards by 7FJ (J=2, 4, and 6) by crystal-field J-mixing, and the latter can be quantitatively modeled by the adaptation of the theoretical model of Wen et al. [Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 12, 9933 (2010)] to account for the corrections due to the inhomogeneous broadening of 7FJ (J=0, and1) crystal-field levels. The methods explored here can be applied to study other glass hosts for luminescent materials.