1. Fluorescence of Samarium Ions in Strontium Bismuth Borate Glasses
Lucas Elliott
Mark S. Boley, P. K. Babu, Saisudha B. Mallur

2. Overview Introduction Experimentation Results Summary
The importance and uses of rare earth doped glasses
Explanation of fluorescence
Experimentation
Samples
Laser excitation and fluorescence measurements
Origin analysis
Results
Summary

3. Rare Earth Doped Glasses
Promising in many industrial and research applications
Including:
Windows
Camera lenses
Lasers
Waveguides
Optical Fibers
Research focuses on glasses doped with Sm3+

4. Host Glass
Borate glasses are used as the host material for the samarium ions
This experiment uses strontium bismuth borate glass
These were bismuth borate glasses
A portion of bismuth is replaced with equal parts strontium
This replacement occurred in 5 mol percentage increments

5. Fluorescence
Luminescence is a general term to describe the emission which can be excited in various ways.
Photoluminescence relates to excitation by photons.
Fluorescence is a type of photoluminescence characterized by an exponential afterglow when excitation is removed.
The emitted photon energy is generally lower than that of excitation.

6. Fluorescence of Sm3+ Ions
Emits a strong reddish orange light
This fluorescence is due to transitions from the 4G5/2 state
Two of these transitions are especially important:
4G5/26H7/2 is an electric dipole (ED) transition
4G5/26H9/2 is a magnetic dipole (MD) transition

7. Samples The experiment uses four samples.
Formula: xSrO : (69-x) B2O3: 30 Bi2O3: 1.0 Sm2O3
Sample 1
X=0
Sample 2
X=5
Sample 3
X=10
Sample 4
X=15

8. Excitation Three excitation wavelengths:
405.0 nm
457.9 nm
488.0 nm
457.9 and nm laser lines were obtained using an Ar ion laser
405.0 was obtained with a diode laser.

9. Ar ion laser Located in CH 524
More powerful of the two lasers used in this experiment
Data collected using LabVIEW software

10. Diode Laser Located in CH 109 Less powerful
Similar configuration as the Ar ion laser with fewer filters

11. Experimental Methods
Emission spectra was measured for each sample using each excitation wavelength.
Spectra was collected across a range of 500 to 750 nm.
The corresponding spectrometer and PC recorded the data in an Excel file.
This data was then transferred to the program Origin.
Origin allowed us to fit Gaussian curves to the emission peaks

12. Experimental Methods
The emissions are the result of Stark split transitions.
Therefore, the area of the Gaussian curves were added to obtain the area under each transition peak.
Finally, these areas were used to obtain the ED/MD ratio.
This ratio shows the symmetry of the rare earth ions in the glass matrix.

13. 405.0 nm
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4

14. 405.0 nm

15. 457.9 nm
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4

16. 457.9 nm

17. 488.0 nm
Sample 1
Sample 2
Sample 3
Sample 4

18. 488.0 nm

19. ED/MD
Sample
405.0 nm
457.9 nm
488.0 nm 1
2.227 ± 0.035
1.714 ± 0.036
1.795 ± 0.067 2
2.208 ± 0.033
1.617 ± 0.036
1.736 ± 0.069 3
2.172 ±0.089
1.628 ±
1.316 ± 0.059 4
2.163 ± 0.089
1.824 ± 0.034
2.150 ± 0.023

20. Results
The fluorescence intensity clearly varies between excitation wavelength
The highest intensities correspond to nm, and the lowest to nm
Sample 2 corresponds to the highest intensities for and nm, and the second highest for nm
We were able to find similar spectra using 2 different laser and spectrometer set-ups

21. Summary The importance and uses of rare earth doped glasses
Explanation of fluorescence
Samples
Laser excitation and fluorescence measurements
Origin analysis
Results