Stimulated luminescence behavior by embedding activated silver nanoparticles in tellurite glass

Abstract

A series of samarium doped magnesium tellurite glass embedded silver nanoparticles has successfully been prepared by melt quenching technique. The amorphous nature of the glass is determined by X-ray diffraction method while the existences of Ag NPs are confirmed using Transmission Electron Microscopy analysis. The optical measurements are performed by UV-Vis absorption and photoluminescence spectroscopy. It is found that the glass is amorphous in nature while the TEM image displays the randomly oriented spherical and non-spherical silver NPs with an average size of about 17 nm in diameter. From the UV-Vis absorption spectra, the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks are detected at 550 and 578 nm while from the PL spectra, a single emission band for each composition which corresponds to 4G5/2?6H11/2 transition is observed under an excitation of 554 nm. The intensity of this transition enhances as the concentration of AgCl is increased up to 0.4 mol%. Meanwhile the Q-factor increases with the increasing of up to 0.4 mol% AgCl which indicates the phonon loss through the non-radiative emission is reduced. At this composition, the decay lifetime reduces which indicate that the energy transfer from Ag NPs to Sm3+ ions have effectively taken place, resulted in a small dissipation of energy. On the other hand, beyond 0.4 mol% AgCl, the Q-factor is decreased while the decay lifetime is increased.