Tunable photoluminescence of silver molecular clusters formed in Na+-Ag+ ion-exchanged antimony-doped photo-thermo-refractive glass matrix

Influence of Na+-Ag+ low-temperature ion exchange and subsequent heat treatment durations on the spectral-luminescent properties of silver molecular clusters formed in antimony-doped photo-thermo-refractive (PTR) glass matrix was studied. The ion exchange of PTR glass leads to long-wavelength shift of the ultra-violet (UV) edge of strong absorption. The shift magnitude is shown to linearly depend on the square root of the ion exchange duration. Increase in the ion exchange duration is shown to result in changing photoluminescent properties of silver molecular clusters, which allows the tuning of the emission color from cool and warm white to yellow and orange. Model for growth of silver molecular clusters in Na+-Ag+ ion-exchanged layers of the antimony-doped PTR glass matrix was proposed based on the observed changes in spectral-luminescent properties of the samples. The studied PTR glass samples doped with silver molecular clusters are characterized by photoluminescence quantum yield up to 57%, which paves the wave for the development of solid-state light-emitting devices and spectral converters with tunable emission spectrum.