First examination of the influence of Y3+ ions on the structural, physical and optical properties of strontium phosphate glasses

Yttrium-ions-doped strontium phosphate-based glasses were prepared by following the classical melt quenching method. This study focuses on discovering the influence of the yttrium dopant on the physical, optical, and structural characteristics of synthesized glasses. The structural analyzes were performed using X-ray diffraction and Fourier transformer infrared. All of the samples examined exhibit an amorphous character, according to XRD. FTIR absorption spectra revealed that the phosphate network was depolymerized, which increased with the level of Y2O3 as the metaphosphate units decreased and the pyrophosphate species increased. The measured density values were used to evaluate the physical characteristics of the glasses samples. Density decreased from 2.108 to 2.099 g/cm3, while molar volume values increased from 60.974 to 62.641 cm3/mol when the yttrium concentration content increased from 0.0 to 1.5 mol.%. The optical measurement shows that the band gap for the energy values decreased from 6.528 to 5.754 eV, showing the alteration of the structure of strontium phosphate by an effect of the yttrium content. In addition, it was concluded that the refractive index of the samples increases with the yttrium oxide content and is inversely related to their optical band gap. Moreover, when the number of Y3+ ions is increased, the electronic polarizability increases. The improvement of electronic polarizability gives a good medium for non-linear optical applications. The amount of Y3+ ions present has a linear connection with the optical basicity of the materials studied. As a result, the studied glass materials could be useful in photonic applications.