Erbium concentration dependent absorbance in tellurite glass

Abstract

Enhancing the optical absorption cross-section in topically important rare earth doped tellurite glasses is challenging for photonic devices. Controlled synthesis and detailed characterizations of the optical properties of these glasses are important for the optimization. The influence of varying concentration of Er3+ ions on the absorbance characteristics of lead tellurite glasses synthesized via melt-quenching technique are investigated. The UV-Vis absorption spectra exhibits six prominent peaks centered at 490, 526, 652, 800, 982 and 1520 nm ascribed to the transitions in erbium ion from the ground state to the excited states 4F7/2, 2H11/2, 4F9/2, 4I9/2, 2H11/2 and 4I13/2, respectively. The results are analyzed by means of optical band gap Eg and Urbach energy Eu. The values of the energy band gap are found decreased from 2.82 to 2.51 eV and the Urbach energy increased from 0.15 to 0.24 eV with the increase of the Er2O3 concentration from 0 to 1.5 mol%. The excellent absorbance of the prepared tellurite glasses makes them suitable for fabricating solid state lasers.