Optical and photoluminescence characteristics of Pr3+-doped P2O5 +BaO+La2O3 glasses

• Pr 3+ :Barium phosphate glasses for visible and NIR lasers are reported. • With increase in Pr 3+ , the red luminescence increases while bluish-green reduces. • The lifetime of 3 P 0 → 3 H 6 level is decreased due to energy transfer via cross-relaxation. • To find the efficacy of the current glasses, large range of compositions are compared. This paper focusses on the spectral analysis of glasses composed of Pr 3+ :barium phosphate (PBaLaPr), which are employed in visible lasers and optical amplifiers. FTIR analysis of the vibrational modes of Pr 3+ :barium phosphate glasses has been studied. Using the absorption spectra, the three Judd-Ofelt (JO) parameters (Ω 2,4,6 ) were calculated. The resultant JO values (× 10 –20 cm 2 ) were estimated to be Ω 2 = 3.49, Ω 4 = 22.06, and Ω 6 = 20.48. The radiative probabilities for the fluorescence states of Pr 3+ were determined. The luminescence spectra show the emission bands in the visible range of 480–750 nm, and when the concentration of Pr 3+ ions increased, decrease in emission intensities is observed due to concentration quenching. A luminescence peak at 600 nm was used as a monitoring level, and a 445 nm excitation was used to assess the decay curves. The decay rates exhibit a bi-exponential pattern, meaning that as the concentration of Pr 3+ ions increase, the lifetimes become shorter. The near infrared luminescence characteristics were studied (λ exe = 488 nm), and the resultant spectrum contains three emission bands, ranging from 800 to 1600 nm. The results of the investigation showed that the titled PBaLaPr glasses have potentiality for the development of VIS-NIR optical amplifiers and optical display devices.