Spectroscopic studies of the behavior of Eu3+ on the luminescence of cadmium tellurite glasses

The effect of europium doping on the photoluminescence of ZnO-CdO-TeO 2 glasses is analyzed. TeO 2 -based glasses are of high interest as hosts for laser glasses. The Eu-doped oxide glasses were prepared by the conventional melt-quenching method. Five different concentrations of europium nitrate hexahydrate that varied from 0.3 to 1.5 mol% were used. SEM observations revealed the formation of zinc aluminate spinel and disperse droplets of liquid-liquid phase separation in the glasses. X-Ray diffraction reveals the amorphous structure of the fabricated glasses. FT-IR and Raman spectra show the presence of TeO 4 and TeO 3+1 /TeO 3 units that conform with the glass matrix. Raman spectra evidenced a band located at 1556 cm −1 that can be related to interstitial molecular oxygen in the glass matrix. Photoluminescence of the glasses showed light emission due to the following europiumtransitions from its D52 , D51 , and D50 levels to its F7J manifolds: D52→F70 (468 nm), D52→F72 (490 nm), D52→F73 (511 nm), D51→F71 (536 nm), D51→F72 (554 nm), D50→F70 (579.5 nm), D50→F71 (592 nm), D50→F72 (613 nm), D50→F73 (652 nm), and D50→F74 (490 nm). The estimated decay time, τ , was 0.4 ms for all the glasses.