Structural, thermal, and luminescence properties of cerium-fluoride-rich oxyfluoride glasses

► Oxyfluoride aluminosilicate glasses with high lanthanum fluoride content were grown. ► Up to 21mol% of dissolved lanthanum fluoride was measured in the final glasses. ► The Ce-doped samples showed blue emission under both photo- and X-ray excitation. ► The glasses are starting materials for fabric...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optical materials 2012-12, Vol.35 (2), p.117-125
Main Authors: Lakshminarayana, G., Weis, Eric M., Bennett, Bryan L., Labouriau, Andrea, Williams, Darrick J., Duque, Juan G., Sheik-Bahae, Mansoor, Hehlen, Markus P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption and luminescence spectroscopy
Aluminum
Amorphous materials, glasses and other disordered solids
Cerium-doped oxyfluoride glasses
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Dissolution
Exact sciences and technology
Excitation
Excited-state lifetimes
Fluorine
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Glass
Glasses, quartz
Luminescence
Nanocrystals
Optical materials
Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation
Optics
Oxyfluorides
Photoluminescence
Physics
Radioluminescence
Structural analysis
Thermal analysis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:► Oxyfluoride aluminosilicate glasses with high lanthanum fluoride content were grown. ► Up to 21mol% of dissolved lanthanum fluoride was measured in the final glasses. ► The Ce-doped samples showed blue emission under both photo- and X-ray excitation. ► The glasses are starting materials for fabricating nano-structured glass–ceramics. Oxyfluoride aluminosilicate glasses containing a high nominal concentration of 35mol% LaF3 and CeF3 were synthesized, and their structural, thermal, optical absorption, photoluminescence, radio-luminescence, and excited-state relaxation properties were investigated. The structural analysis confirms the amorphous nature of the glasses and finds up to 21mol% of retained dissolved LaF3 and CeF3. Tetrahedral Si and Al units as well as Si–O–Si and Al–O functional groups are identified. Fluorine is found to replace bridging oxygens and to form both Si–F and Al–F bonds. Glass transition temperature (Tg), crystallization temperature (Tc), and melting temperature (Tm) were determined from the DSC thermograms. The CeF3-doped glasses show spectrally broad 5d→4f luminescence in the violet-blue (centered around 402nm) under both direct optical excitation of Ce3+ at 335nm and X-ray excitation at 25keV. The relative quantum yield was found to decrease with increasing CeF3 concentration due to energy transfer to residual Ce4+ ions or to Ce3+ coordinated to hydroxyl (OH) impurities followed by non-radiative relaxation. The studied glasses are promising starting materials for the fabrication of glass–ceramics with a high volume fraction of LaF3:Ce3+ nano-crystals.
ISSN:0925-3467
1873-1252
DOI:10.1016/j.optmat.2012.07.022