Optical traits of neodymium-doped new types of borate glasses: Judd-Ofelt analysis

Abstract

Improvement in the optical properties of rare earth ions activated inorganic glasses is one of the challenges in materials science. Driven by this idea a new series of borate glass activated with varying concentrations of neodymium ions (Nd3+) were prepared using the melt-quenching technique. Such glasses were characterized by various analytical tools to determine the Nd3+ contents dependent spectroscopic attributes. Furthermore, Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters of Nd3+ were evaluated. XRD pattern of as-quenched samples confirmed their amorphous nature. FTIR spectra of glasses revealed the bonds stretching and vibration of different borate functional groups. UV–vis spectra of glasses displayed twelve absorption bands accompanied by hypersensitive transition positioned at 581 nm which were used to calculate the oscillator strengths. Judd-Ofelt parameters for all glasses disclosed a similar trend of Ω4 > Ω6 > Ω2. Proposed glass hosts were found to be effective for the enhancement of spectroscopic quality factor of Nd3+ as much as 1.2603, suggesting their usefulness in photonics devices.