Boroaluminosilicate glass-ceramics containing mullite-type Cr3+:Al4B2O9 nanocrystals with broadband near-infrared luminescence

Multi-component silicate glass is an ideal matrix for fabricating glass-ceramics because of its excellent physical-chemical stability and high optical transmittance. In this paper, a series of Cr3+ doped multi-component silicate glasses were designed for the preparation of glass-ceramics that crystalizes mullite-type Cr3+:Al4B2O9 nanocrystals. When excited at 450 nm, the obtained GCs exhibit a broadband NIR luminescence band covering a spectral region from 650 to 1200 nm. Two different crystallographic sites of Cr3+ in Al4B2O9 nanocrystal are considered to account for the observed broadband luminescence. Due to the controllable size and uniformly dispersion of precipitated nanoparticles, this boroaluminosilicate glass-ceramic could find potential applications as monolithic near-infrared light sources in solid-state light emitting devices.