Physical, structural and optical studies on magnesium borate glasses doped with dysprosium ion

Intense visible emissions from dysprosium (Dy3+) ions doped glasses became prospective for diverse technological applications. In this paper, physical, optical and structural properties of magnesium borate glasses doped with varied concentrations of Dy2O3 were examined. Such glasses were synthesised by melt quenching method and characterized at room temperature using several analytical techniques. Luminescence and absorption spectra (in the visible region) of as-quenched samples were used to evaluate the physical and optical properties. XRD pattern confims the amorphous state of as-quenched samples. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of glasses reveal various bonding vibrations assigned to different functional groups. UV-vis-NIR spectra disclose eight absorption bands accompanied by a band for hypersensitive transition positioned at 1260 nm (H-6(15/2) -> F-6(11/2)). The values of direct and indirect optical energy band gap of the studied glasses are decreased with the increase of Dy3+ ion contents. The photoluminescence spectra of all glasses under the excitation of 380 nm display two prominent emission bands centred at 497 nm (F-4(9/2) -> H-6(15/2) , blue) and 587 nm (F-4(9/2)-> H-6(13/2), green). The achieved intense luminescence from the proposed glass composition may be beneficial for solidstate laser applications. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Society of Rare Earths.