Sb2O3 functionalized Plasmon, photoluminescence and Faraday rotation in glass

Abstract This paper reports the influence of antimony ions and Sb2O3 reduced Ag0 on the magnetic and Faraday rotation of diamagnetic glasses for the first time. High Verdet constant diamagnetic glasses with compositions of xSb2O3–(15–x)B2O3–35PbO–45Bi2O3–2Ag2O–3ZnO were fabricated and characterized. Ag nanoparticles were realized in glass using Sb2O3 as reducing agent through single-step melting quenching technique. The structure, spectral along with optical, magnetic and Faraday rotation properties were investigated through XRD, FT-IR, Raman, XPS, UV-VIS, luminescence and VSM measurements. Due to the big optical basicity of glass matrix and the reducing property of Sb2O3, Ag+ ions were reduced to Ag0 accompanied with the conversion from Sb3+ to Sb5+. Raman spectra revealed the presence of SbO3, BiO3, PbO4, and BO3, BO4 units in glasses, with the increase of Sb2O3, Ag-O and B-O vibration decreased and 10-15% Sb2O3 doped samples crystallized into ceramics. XPS analysis displays the co-existence and evolutions of antimony and silver species as a function of Sb2O3 content. SPR absorption peaks of Ag nanoparticles in glasses red-shifted from 525nm to 600nm, indicating the aggregation of Ag nanoparticles into bigger sized Ag3 clusters which present emission peaks around 560nm. The electron transitions between Sb3+ and Sb5+ show emission around 560nm while Sb5+ ions show emission at 800nm. All glasses exhibited diamagnetic properties due to the diamagnetic character of glass matrix and doping ions. Both the high polarizability of diamagnetic Sb3+&Sb5+ and Ag0 SPR effects contributed to an enhancement of Faraday rotation of glasses, the 3%Sb2O3 doped glass showed the highest Verdet constant of 0.2047min/G.cm at 594nm which therefore might be an attractive candidate for magneto optical device applications.