Influence of the P2O5/Al2O3 co-doping on the local environment of erbium ions and on the 1.5μm quantum efficiency of Er3+-borosilicate glasses

Abstract In this paper, the absorption properties of Er 3+ -doped borosilicate glasses with various P 2 O 5 and Al 2 O 3 content are measured for different silica concentrations. The Judd–Ofelt parameters (Ω 2 , Ω 4 and Ω 6 ) have been calculated in order to investigate the local environment of the rare-earth cations. The compositional changes of Ω 2 and Ω 6 are attributed to changes in the bonding between Er 3+ and surrounding ligand groups due to structural modifications occurring with the introduction of P 2 O 5 and Al 2 O 3 . The luminescence quantum efficiency of the 4 I 13/2 → 4 I 15/2 transition slightly increases with the addition of P 2 O 5 whereas it decreases with the progressive replacement of P 2 O 5 by Al 2 O 3 . We noticed that it also increases when the silica content is higher.