Optical and structural properties of Er3+ ions - doped silica – phosphate thin film and monolith prepared by the sol-gel method.
H. A. Wahab1, B. A. Ashmawi2, C. Armellin3, I. Vasilchenko3,4, A. Lukowia3,
M. Ferrari4, I. K. Battisha1 and L. I. Soliman1 1Solid State Physics Department, Physics Division, National Research Center (NRC), Dokky, Giza, Egypt. 2Apparel and Knitting Research department Textiles Research division, National Research Center (NRC), Dokky, Giza, Egypt. 3IFN – CNR CSMFO Lab., Via alla Cascata 56/C Povo, 38123 Trento, Italy 4Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Trento, via Sommarive 14, Povo, 38123 Trento, Italy. Abstract Nano-composites of silica – phosphate doped with different concentration of Er3+ ions have been synthesized by sol gel technique and submitted to different temperature. The structural and spectroscopic properties of the systems were investigated by XRD analysis, Raman spectroscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. The luminescence of the doped samples indicated the immobilization of Er3+ ions into a distorted environment. The dependence of both luminescence intensity of the Er3+ concentration demonstrated effective reduction of concentration quenching in the repaired samples at higher Er3+ ions concentrations. The coarse and fine microstructure of the prepared samples were depicted by transmission electron microscope (TEM). The refractive index of the thin film samples will be evaluated by measuring the normal transmission and specular reflection of the prepared samples. The photo-luminescence properties will be evaluated.
Keywords: Nano- composite, Erbium (III) ions, Silica−phosphate, Thin film and monolith.