Multi‐responsive terbium‐doped zinc borosilicate glasses under optical, mechanical and thermo‐mechanical stimulation

Abstract In contrast to organic and semiconductor ceramic materials, conventional oxide glasses do not typically exhibit pronounced stimulus‐response, stemming from their state of chemical bonding and structural isotropy. However, targeted selection of the glass matrix and additional ion species acting as functional components have enabled multi‐responsive glasses, too. Here, we consider a multi‐responsive all‐inorganic zinc borosilicate glass using Tb 3+ ions as the activator species. This material enables high responsivity to optical, magnetic, and thermo‐mechanical stimuli, combined or alone and at low activation barrier. Being free of any crystals—as confirmed by combined X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy—typical glass properties such as optical homogeneity and the ability to be formed into a wide variety of shapes are retained. Glasses designed in such a way enable multi‐modal response to combinations of external fields, in particular, thermal, mechanical, and optical, while maintaining visual transparency and environmental durability. Such a response can be utilized for logic operations or information storage, for example, in the visualization of mechanical stress, probes for thermal transport or multi‐field dosimeters.