Impact of Bi2O3 on structural properties and lasing effects in Nd3+ doped bismuth phosphate glasses at 1.053 μm emission

Influence of addition of bismuth oxide (Bi2O3) on structural and optical properties of 0.5Nd(3+) doped different phosphate glasses prepared by melt quenching technique were reported. The structural properties were analysed by FT-IR and P-31 MAS NMR techniques. P-31 NMR results showed that, with the variation of Bi2O3 concentration in the prepared phosphate glass matrices there was no significant change in the structure. The optical properties have been analysed using Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory. From absorption spectra, three phenomenological J-O intensity parameters (Omega(2), Omega(4), Omega(6)) have been calculated and these parameters were used to estimate the radiative properties. The J-O intensity parameters increased with increase in the concentration of Bi2O3, which confirmed the higher covalency, asymmetry and rigidity. The branching ratios (beta) and emission cross-sections (sigma) were calculated from the emission spectra of Nd3+ doped bismuth phosphate (BiP) glasses. Among different glass matrices 15 mol% of Bi2O3 glass matrix has higher beta and sigma values which are useful for the laser applications. The improved emission cross-section value with the addition of Bi2O3 content results low threshold and high gain applications. The decay curves of all these BiP glasses showed single exponential behaviour. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.