Investigation of structural and optical properties of Pr3+ doped and Pr3+/Dy3+ co-doped multicomponent bismuth phosphate glasses for visible light applications

• Pr 3+ doped and Pr 3+ /Dy 3+ co-doped different bismuth phosphate glasses are investigated for lighting application. • Existence of PO 3 and PO 4 structural units are confirmed by both FTIR and 31 P MAS NMR spectra. • Radiative properties for the fluorescent levels of Pr 3+ and Pr 3+ /Dy 3+ ions are obtained with J-O theory. • Effect of modifiers (LiF, NaF, MgF 2 , KF, CaF 2 and SrF 2 ) on structural and spectroscopic properties of bismuth phosphate glasses has been studied. Pr 3+ doped 59.5P 2 O 5 +15Bi 2 O 3 +10BaF 2 +10xF+05TeO 2 +0.5Pr 6 O 11 glasses and Pr 3+ /Dy 3+ co-doped 59P 2 O 5 +15Bi 2 O 3 + 10BaF 2 + 10xF + 05TeO 2 +0.5Dy 2 O 3 +0.5Pr 6 O 11 glasses (where xF = LiF, NaF, MgF 2 , KF, CaF 2 and SrF 2 ) were synthesized using melt quenching route. Structural properties were researched for different modifier fluorides. With the dopant constant concentration the absorption and luminescence intensity variance influenced by this multicomponent incorporation has been observed. The energy transfer between resonance levels of Pr 3+ and Dy 3+ through fluorescence studies also examined for Mg and Sr glasses. Long-range nature of prepared glasses, morphological studies with elemental probe, various functional groups pertaining to glass matrices and the non-bridging oxygen bonds with PO 4 tetrahedron or depolymarization of oxygen bonds in the presence of the modifier cations with phosphates were thoroughly understood with PXRD, FTIR and 31 P NMR characterizations. Judd-Ofelt (J-O) theory has been adopted to estimate important optical parameters. From the fluorescence studies laser characteristic parameters such as optical band gains (σ e × τ R ) and gain bandwidths (σ e × Δλ eff ) were calculated and compared in the present fabricated glasses influenced by various modifiers.