Luminescent properties of Ce3+ ion and Tb3+ ion co-doped transparent oxyfluoride glass ceramics containing BaGdF5 nanocrystals

The transparent oxyfluoride glass ceramics containing BaGdF5 nanocrystals co-doping with Ce3+ ions and Tb3+ ions were prepared by thermal treatment technology and the luminescent properties were described. The typical DSC curve, X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), corresponding selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) image were measured. The transmission spectra and luminescent properties were investigated. The decay times of the glass and glass ceramics and the energy transfer process between Ce3+ ions and Tb3+ ions were also studied. The XRD analysis and the TEM images confirmed the generation of the spherical BaGdF5 nanocrystals. Compared with the PG specimen, the intensity of the emission spectra of Tb3+ ions increases and the emission intensity of Ce3+ ions decreases gradually with the heat treatment temperature increasing, and a blue shift in the emission spectra of Ce3+ ions in the emission spectra of glass ceramic specimens is obviously observed. In the fluorescence decay curves of the Ce3+ ions, it can be obviously observed that the fluorescent intensity decays in the Ce3+ ion and Tb3+ ion co-doped glass ceramic specimens decrease rapidly with increasing the heat treatment temperature. In addition, the efficiency of the energy transfer from Ce3+ ions to Tb3+ ions was also calculated. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.