Structure-Dependent Spectroscopic Properties of Yb3+-Doped Phosphosilicate Glasses Modified by SiO₂

Ling Wang; Huidan Zeng; Bin Yang; Feng Ye; Jianding Chen; Guorong Chen; Andew T Smith; Luyi Sun

doi:10.3390/ma10030241

Structure-Dependent Spectroscopic Properties of Yb³⁺-Doped Phosphosilicate Glasses Modified by SiO₂

Materials (Basel). 2017 Feb 28;10(3):241. doi: 10.3390/ma10030241.

Authors

Ling Wang¹, Huidan Zeng², Bin Yang³, Feng Ye⁴, Jianding Chen⁵, Guorong Chen⁶, Andew T Smith⁷, Luyi Sun⁸

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. y30140453@mail.ecust.edu.cn.
² Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. hdzeng@ecust.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. y45150059@mail.ecust.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. y30140482@mail.ecust.edu.cn.
⁵ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. jiandingchen@ecust.edu.cn.
⁶ Key Laboratory for Ultrafine Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, China. grchen@ecust.edu.cn.
⁷ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. andrew.smith@uconn.edu.
⁸ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Polymer Program, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA. luyi.sun@uconn.edu.

Abstract

Yb³⁺-doped phosphate glasses containing different amounts of SiO₂ were successfully synthesized by the conventional melt-quenching method. The influence mechanism of SiO₂ on the structural and spectroscopic properties was investigated systematically using the micro-Raman technique. It was worth noting that the glass with 26.7 mol % SiO₂ possessed the longest fluorescence lifetime (1.51 ms), the highest gain coefficient (1.10 ms·pm²), the maximum Stark splitting manifold of ²F_7/2 level (781 cm^-1), and the largest scalar crystal-field N_J and Yb³⁺ asymmetry degree. Micro-Raman spectra revealed that introducing SiO₂ promoted the formation of P=O linkages, but broke the P=O linkages when the SiO₂ content was greater than 26.7 mol %. Based on the previous ²⁹Si MAS NMR experimental results, these findings further demonstrated that the formation of [SiO₆] may significantly affect the formation of P=O linkages, and thus influences the spectroscopic properties of the glass. These results indicate that phosphosilicate glasses may have potential applications as a Yb³⁺-doped gain medium for solid-state lasers and optical fiber amplifiers.

Keywords: SiO2; Yb3+-doped; phosphosilicate glasses.