Physical, structural, optical and photons attenuation attributes of lithium-magnesium-borate glasses: Role of Tm2O3 doping

Room temperature visible photoluminescence from rare earth ions doped in glasses became prospective for eye safe laser and sensor applications. Driven by this idea, glass system with nominal composition of 20Li2O–(70-x)B2O3–10MgO–xTm2O3 (where 0 ≤ x ≤ 1) were synthesized via a melt-quenching technique. As-quenched samples were analyzed using various analytical tools at room temperature. XRD patterns of as-quenched samples confirmed their amorphous nature and FTIR spectra revealed the existence of BO3 and BO4 structural units. Achieved glasses were transparent and thermally stable (verified by DTA curves). UV–vis-NIR spectra of glasses disclosed four significant absorption bands at round 791, 683, 466 and 355 nm which were assigned to the transitions from ground level of 3H6 to respective 3H4, 3F3, 1G4 and 1D2 excited levels of Tm3+ ions. Photoluminescence emission spectra (at an excitation wavelength of 473 nm) of prepared glasses displayed three characteristic peaks positioned at 476, 650 and 783 nm corresponding to 1G4→3H6, 1G4→3F4 and 3H4→3H6 transitions from Tm3+ ions. Also, the photon shielding properties for the LMB glasses with different Tm2O3 content were studies using the well known program (XCOM). The mass attenuation coefficients showed an increase behavior as the Tm2O3 concentration rise. Overall, the properties of LMB glasses were discerned to be sensitive to the Tm2O3 concentration variation. It was concluded that the proposed glass compositions may be useful for solid state lasers and telecommunications applications.