Plasmonic enhanced luminescence in Er3+: Ag co-doped tellurite glass

A series of erbium doped zinc tellurite glass samples with and without nanoparticles are prepared by the conventional melt-quenching method and their structural and spectroscopic characterizations are measured. Effect of silver nanoparticles on optical properties of samples is studied by annealing them for different time intervals. Efficient enhancement of upconversion emissions in the entire visible region is observed after 2 h annealing and assigned to strong localized electric field in vicinity of nanoparticles under excitation at 786 nm. The quench of green emissions (S-4(3/2) -> I-4(15/2)) by longer annealing time interval is described by energy transfer from silver nanoparticles to erbium ions. Improvements of radiative emissions show that the proposed glass and technique are promising to develop solid state lasers, color displays and nanophotonics devices. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.