Absorption and emission spectral analysis of Sm3+:: Bi2O3-B2O3-Li2O glasses

In order to enhance UV-transmission ability of B2O3 based glass, a suitable quantity of Bi2O3 and Li2O salts have been added and hence the UV cut-off wavelength of Bi2O-B2O3-Li2O glass (abbreviated as BBL glass) has been found to be 268 nm. In this newly developed glass a luminescent rare earth ion namely Sm3+ (1 mol.%) has been incorporated to examine its absorption, excitation, emission and lifetimes of different measured emission bands. Under an UV-source, it has displayed a bright orange emission color. Apart from understanding its various optical properties, different physical properties of the un-doped reference glass have been investigated. The XRD profile of this glass has confirmed its amorphous nature. The measured excitation spectrum has shown a bright excitation band at 483 nm with which, the Sm3+ glass has been excited and thus obtained four emission bands at 563 nm, 598 nm, 648 nm and 709 nm respectively. An energy level diagram has been shown to explain the emission process involved in the glass system investigated in the present work.