Intense white upconversion emission in Pr/Er/Yb codoped tellurite glass

Near infrared sensitized white light emitting glass has been developed and demonstrated. The white light comes from a combination of radiations emitted from triple rare earth ions (Er, Pr, and Yb) doped in tellurite glass. White light emission is possible by suitably mixing the red-green-blue (RGB) intensities emitted from these rare earth ions. The 980 nm radiation sensitized Yb3+ ions transfer their excitation energy to the Er3+ and Pr3+ ions to promote them to the upper states. The green and red emissions come mainly from Er3+ ion whereas blue emission from Yb3+ and Pr3+ ions. The RGB intensities could be adjusted by tuning the rare earth ion concentration. The optical quality of white light was adjudged using the Commission Internationale de P Eclairage coordinates by the rare earth ion concentration and incident power density. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.