Upconversion and 1.53 μm near-infrared luminescence study of the Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped novel phosphate glasses

Er3+-doped glasses are important materials to develop upconvertors, sensors, optical fibers and green solid state lasers. The upconversion and near-infrared transitions in Er3+-Yb3+ co-doped phosphate glasses are studied in this work and an improvement of 45% in the quantum efficiency of the glasses is observed by the addition of 1 mol% of Yb2O3. Judd-Ofelt analysis, lifetime of some excited states of Er3+ ions and energy transfer mechanisms are discussed.