Characterization of Er3+ and Nd3+ doped Strontium Barium Niobate glass ceramic as temperature sensors

Temperature sensor is a vast group of the commercially approachable optical sensors. Recently has appeared a new kind of these devices using the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) with a very good sensitivity. The FIR technique has been carried out in Strontium Barium Niobate (SBN) glass ceramic sample to extend the knowledge of this kind of matrix. The samples has been doped with Erbium and Neodymium ions (2.5 mol%). The thermalized level S-4(3/2) (H-2(11/2)) of Er3+ ions was studied in a wide temperature range from 300 K to 700 K with a maximum sensitivity of 0.0017 K-1 for 600 K. In these ions the FIR technique has been applied to the transitions H-2(11/2) -> I-4(13/2) and S-4(3/2) -> I-4(13/2) at 800 nm and 850 nm, respectively. The weak overlap between these thermalized emission bands is an important factor to reduce the error in the measurements. In the Nd3+ doped sample, the emission bands corresponding to the F-4(5/2) -> I-4(9/2) and F-4(3/2) -> I-4(9/2) transitions were analyzed as a function of the temperature from 300 K to 700 K with a maximum sensitivity of 0.0015 K-1 for 600 K. These results are compared with other optical devices using FIR technique. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.