A facile approach towards fabrication and ultrabroad band emission properties of nickel ion-doped ZnAl2O4 transparent ceramics

We report the preparation method and broadband emission characteristics of nickel ion-doped ZnAl2O4 transparent ceramics. The transparent ceramics were prepared with melting-vaporing procedure, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, and possesses the ultrabroad band emission spectra ranging from 1050 to 1550 nm under the excitation of a 980 nm laser. The analysis of crystal structure of this ceramics shows that the diffraction peaks of the crystal-phase match perfectly with ZnAl2O4 crystal. This material shows high luminance efficiency and has great potential for broad band optoelectronic materials and devices including optical coherence tomography imaging system and optical communication measurement instruments.