Radiative transition, local field enhancement and energy transfer microcosmic mechanism of tellurite glasses containing Er3+, Yb3+ ions and Ag nanoparticles

Er3+-doped, Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped tellurite glass with and without Ag NPs were synthesized by melt-quenching method. The high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and selected area electron diffractions (SAED) manifest growth of Ag NPs. The UV-vis-NIR absorption spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy were measured. The optical band gap and multiphonon relaxation rate constants were calculated. The electronic band structure and local density of state (DOS) of Ag NPs are calculated. The fluorescence emission and enhancement mechanism including localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and energy transfer (ET) microcosmic mechanism were discussed. The electric field distributions of Ag NPs are emulated by FDTD solutions software. Local field enhancement (LFE) induced by LSPR and lightning rod effect was found to be responsible for the fluorescence enhancement while energy transfer from Ag NPs to rare-earth was considered ignorable in the samples without photoluminescent emission. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.