New low-temperature phosphate glasses as a host for Europium Ions

Abstract Artificial lightining, especially that of light emitting diodes, and telecommunications are penetrating every part of human lives daily. Different compositions phosphate glasses were suggested as a suitable host material for Eu3+ ions. Here rare earth metal ions act as luminescent centers also perturbing the bond order of phosphate glass network comprised of (PO4)3−, [−(O)PO3]2−, [−(O)2PO2]−, [−(O)3PO] structural units, which is indicated by Raman spectroscopy, confirming successful integration of aforementioned ions into the glass material. Glasses doped with Eu3+ ions show their typical photoluminescence spectra in low symmetry environment, consisting of the highest intensity 5D0→7F2 line. As indicated by the proceeding data, the suggested glass compositions can promisingly be employed as a low-temperature single-batch solution for the synthesis of luminescent glass matrix components, greatly reducing the energy needs compared both to silicate and borosilicate glass composites, and at the same time without the need of oxides containing expensive and heavy elements like tellurium, germanium and such. Most of the optical glass is synthesized at temperatures above 1200°C meanwhile our proposed glass compositions can be synthesized at temperatures below 1000°C which is more environmentally friendly.