Abstract
Luminescent phosphate glasses having the composition 40P(2)O(5)-30ZnO-20BaF(2)-3.8K(2)TeO(3)-1.2Al(2)O(3)-5Nb(2)O(5)in mol.% doped with 3 x 10(3) ppm and 4 x 10(3) ppm Sm(2)O(3)were successfully prepared by a melt-quenching technique. The investigated glasses were characterized by x-ray diffraction, UV-visible-NIR, absorption, emission, and fluorescence lifetime analysis. The radiative properties were calculated using Judd-Ofelt (J-O) spectral intensity parameters for each of the glasses, which revealed the following trend:Omega(2) > Omega(4) > Omega(6). The J-O intensity parameters were used to evaluate the spontaneous emission properties including branching ratios, transition probabilities, and radiative lifetime. The value of the optical energy band gap was found to decrease with an increase in Sm(3+)content, which is explained on the basis of structural changes. The calculated stimulated emission cross-section sigma(SE), at 1.62 mu m of glasses studied was high, and increased from 3.81 x 10(-21) cm(2) to 4.38 x 10(-21) cm(2)with increasing Sm3+ ion concentration. The structure of the glasses was investigated by computing Internuclear (r(i)), Polaron radius (r(p)) and field strength F and measurement of Raman spectra.