SiO2-SnO2 : Er3+ glass-ceramic monoliths

Tran, Lam Thi Ngoc and Massella, Damiano and Zur, Lidia and Chiasera, Alessandro and Varas, Stefano and Armellini, Cristina and Righini, Giancarlo C. and Lukowiak, Anna and Zonta, Daniele and Ferrari, Maurizio (2018) SiO2-SnO2 : Er3+ glass-ceramic monoliths. Applied Sciences (Switzerland), 8 (8). 1335. ISSN 2076-3417 (https://doi.org/10.3390/app8081335)

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Abstract

The development of efficient luminescent systems, such as microcavities, solid-state lasers, integrated optical amplifiers, and optical sensors is the main topic in glass photonics. The building blocks of these systems are glass-ceramics activated by rare-earth ions because they exhibit specific morphologic, structural, and spectroscopic properties. Among various materials that could be used as nanocrystals to be imbedded in a silica matrix, tin dioxide presents some interesting peculiarities, e.g., the presence of tin dioxide nanocrystals allows an increase in both solubility and emission of rare-earth ions. Here, we focus our attention on Er3+-doped silica-tin dioxide photonic glass-ceramics fabricated by a sol-gel route. Although the SiO2-SnO2:Er3+ could be fabricated in different forms, such as thin films, monoliths, and planar waveguides, we herein limit ourselves to the monoliths. The effective role of tin dioxide as a luminescence sensitizer for Er3+ ions is confirmed by spectroscopic measurements and detailed fabrication protocols are discussed.