Thermal Effect of Er3+ Ions Embedded in Smart Nano-Composite Oxide Material Prepared by Sol-Gel Technique

I.K. Battishaa, M.M.H. Ayoub b, A.I. Hashem c, E.H. Ahmed b and A. Amin b aSolid State Physics Department, National Research Center (NRC), Giza, Egypt bPolymers and Pigments Department, National Research Center (NRC), Giza, Egypt cChemistry Department, Ain Shams University, Egypt

Received: September 23, 2016; Revised version: April 3, 2017; In final form: April 25, 2017

Full Text PDF

The phosphosilicate for planar waveguides fabrication by using sol-gel, and particularly erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers, is reviewed. In particular, efforts to use sol-gel to improve molecular homogeneity in Er-doped phosphosilicate-based monolith and thin films will be discussed. A variety of material studies was carried out to investigate and optimize the sample preparation condition for such application. These include X-ray diffraction, the Fourier transform infrared and optical transmittance, absorption and refractive index calculation. The erbium nitrate precursors use is shown to alter the Er3+ ions doping in the prepared samples thermally treated in the final monolith glass form, in comparison to the use of thin film phosphosilicate sol-gel sample. Excess heat treatment is used to force prepared samples crystallization, moreover resulting photoluminescence analysis is used to detect the co-operative-up-conversion sample properties before and after heating.

DOI: 10.12693/APhysPolA.132.1277 topics: photonics, sol-gel, erbium ions, XRD, FESEM, HRTEM, optical refractive index