Structural and luminescence properties of magnesium aluminate borate glass doped with Eu and Dy ions

Abstract

A series of glasses based on xMgO-(95–x)B2O3-5Al2O3 where 15= x =25 mol% and xMgO-(90–x)B2O3-10Al2O3 where 10= x =30 mol% have been prepared using melt quenching technique. The amorphous phases were identified using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the mode of vibrations for these glasses has been determined by means of Fourier Transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The results of XRD patterns indicate that the glasses are amorphous phase. FTIR measurements revealed that the network structure of the studied glasses is mainly based on BO3 and BO4 units placed in different structural groups which the BO3 units being dominant. The introduction of low Al2O3 content caused the conversion of BO3 units into BO4 units. Meanwhile when Al2O3 content is increase to 10 mol%, the conversion from BO4 to BO3 occurs. This phenomenon is usually observed in borate glass which is called “boron anomaly”. In order to obtain the luminescence properties, these glasses were doped with 1 mol% Dy3+ and Eu3+ ions each in composition of 30MgO-10Al2O3-60B2O3 and 20MgO-10Al2O3- 70B2O3. The absorption spectra obtained from UV-Visible spectrometer of the glasses sample show that there were obvious absorptions peaks in infrared region for both Dy3+ and Eu3+ ions. Photoluminescence spectra for both ions were emitted in visible region. The Dy3+ emission is due to 4F9/2 ? 6H15/2 transition (blue region) and 4F9/2 ? 6H13/2 transition (yellow region). Meanwhile the red emission spectra are due to transition of 5D0 ? 7F2 in Eu3+ ion. In addition, in this study revealed that Dy3+ ion dependent on host composition whereas Eu3+ ion is not dependent on host composition.