The use of glassfibres coated with terbium doped sol–gel films in UV sensors

Since glassfibres are a common method for transport of information, this study examines the application of glassfibres in UV sensors. To this end, the glassfibres have been coated with a silica-xerogel doped with lanthanide carboxylate complexes, especially terbium picolinate (TbPic). Different pretreatments of the glassfibres have been tested in order to enhance the signal to background ratio of the terbium line emission of 545 nm wavelength. It has turned out that the signal to background ratio can be increased by a factor of nine by etching the surface of the glassfibre with concentrated hydrofluoric acid.