Structural and luminescence properties of Sm3+ ions in zinc fluorophosphate glasses

Sm3+-doped zinc fluorophosphate (PKAZLFSm) glasses have been prepared by conventional melt quenching technique and are characterized through thermal, Raman, absorption, emission and decay rate analysis. The Judd-Ofelt (JO) theory has been used to derive the spectroscopic properties of Sm3+:PKAZLFSm glasses. The decay rates for the (4)G(5/2) level of Sm3+ ions have been measured and are found to be single exponential at lower concentration (<= 0.1 mol% Sm2O3) and turns into non-exponential at higher concentrations (>= 0.5 mol% Sm2O3) due to energy transfer through cross-relaxation. The experimental lifetimes for (4)G(5/2) level of Sm3+ ions are found to decrease from 3.2 to 0.5 ms when the concentration increased from 0.01 to 4.0 mol% Sm2O3 due to energy transfer among Sm3+ ions. In order to know the nature of the energy transfer mechanism, the non-exponential decay rates are well fitted to Inokuti Hirayama model for S = 6, indicating that the energy transfer process is of dipole dipole type. The results obtained for the (4)G(5/2) -> H-6(7/2) transition indicate that the Sm3+:PKAZLFSm10 glass can be very much useful for the development of visible lasers in the reddish orange spectral region. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.