Blue, green and red fluorescence and energy transfer of Eu3+ in fluoride glasses

Solid state blue and green light sources are desirable for high density optical storage, color displays, optoelectronics, and medical diagnostics. In addition to the well-known red emission of Eu3+, strong green, blue, and ultraviolet emissions have been observed in Eu3+ doped ZBLA (57ZrF(4) . 36BaF(2) . 4LaF(3) . 3AIF(3)) and PIGLZ (43PbF(2) . 17InF(3) . 17GaF(3) . 4LaF(3) . 19ZnF(2)) fluoride glasses. The intense concentration dependence of these emissions was examined with fluorescence and excitation spectroscopy and found to be caused by nonradiative dipole-quadrupole and dipole-dipole energy transfer between excited and ground state Eu3+ ions. Judd-Ofelt analysis, transfer efficiency, and phonon side band measurements were used to model the fluorescence, energy transfer, and gain cross section for Eu3+ in a ZBLA host.