Impact of Eu3+ on the luminescent, physical and optical properties of BaSO4 - B2O3 - P2O5 glasses

The investigations of the impact on the luminescent, physical and optical properties of Alkaline earth metal borophosphate glasses doped with rare earth (RE) ions became demanding owing to their several distinct features that are advantageous for applications in diverse photonic devices. A new series of BaSO4 - B2O3 - P2O5 glasses doped Eu3+ with different compositions of 25BaSO4 - 30B2O3 - (45-x) P2O5 - xEu2O3 (where x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 mol%) were prepared by melt - quenching technique. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscope examined the amorphous state of the prepared glasses. Differential thermal analyser was used to determine the transition peaks. Some of their physical properties have been calculated. The direct band gap, indirect band gap and urbach energy were found to be within (4.654-4.199 eV), (3.902-3.656 eV) and (0.576-0.428 eV). The absorption spectra in the UV-vis and near infrared region revealed seven prominent peaks centred at 379, 393, 414, 463, 532, 2091 and 2206 nm corresponding to 7F0 → 5G2,5L6, 5D3, 5D2, 5D1,7F0 → 7F6 and 7F1 → 7F6 transitions respectively. Photoluminescence spectra monitoring at the excitation of 391 nm exhibits four emissions band positioned at 591, 613, 655 and 701 nm corresponding to 5D0 → 7F1, 7F2, 7F3 and 7F4 transition of Eu3+ ions. Judd-ofelt parameters have been calculated. The decay time of 5D0 level decreases from 2.02 to 1.52 ms. The excellent features demonstrated by the current glasses affirm their suitability for solid state lasers and red LEDs applications.