Structural and spectroscopic properties of Er3+ doped sodium lithium borate glasses

The trivalent erbium (Er3+) doped sodium lithium borate glass with composition (65-x)B2O3-15Na2O-10PbO-5ZnO-5Li2O-xEr2O3 have been successfully fabricated by melt-quench technique. The structural properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR). The absorption and luminescence spectra of glass samples were measured to determine the spectroscopic properties. The Judd–Ofelt parameters were calculated based on absorption spectra with values of Ω2, = 4.39, Ω4 = 3.22, and Ω6 = 0.91 (×10−22 cm2) for 2.0 mol% Er3+ ion doped sodium lithium borate glass. Furthermore, radiative properties including effective bandwidth (Δλeff), radiative transition probability (AR), radiative lifetime (τR), and branching ratio (βR) were also calculated and analyzed. A strong emission band at 1532 nm was observed corresponding to 4I15/2 → 4I13/2 transition under the excitation wavelength of 528 and 976 nm. The stimulated emission cross-section (σe) and figure of merit (FWHM xσe) were calculated and compared with other glasses in order to evaluate the properties of the present samples for optical amplifier. Based on the characterization results, we found that the glass with 2.0 mol% Er3+ ion doped sodium lithium borate glass had the highest stimulated emission cross section compared to other samples and were comparable with the previous reports.