Synergistic effect of dysprosium on thermal, optical, and structural characteristics in telluro-zinc-phosphate glasses

Abstract A new series of telluro- zinc-phosphate glasses incorporated with Dy 3+ ions are synthesized by deploying the melt quenching process, of which chemical compositions are xDy 2 O 3 -(0.48-x)TeO 2 -0.25ZnO-0.27P 2 O 5 (x = 0.005, 0.010, 0.015, and 0.020). The obtained XRD pattern affirms the amorphous nature of the investigated samples with some crystallinity. Analysis of EDAX spectra is performed for the compositional analysis. Various physical, and structural measurements reveal that Dy 3+ ion acts as an effective network modifier. The Raman spectral measurements explore the occurrence of various functional groups. DSC study reveals the increment in glass transition temperature (383–411) °C, as well as thermal stability with the inclusion of Dy 3+ ions. The recorded UV–vis spectra exhibit a distinct modulation of Dy 3+ absorption bands by disclosing six absorption bands including a high intensity band at 381 nm. This structural modification causes the distinctive reduction of energy band gaps (E opt ) from (3.89–3.44) eV, signifying enhancement in Urbach energy (E U ) values from (0.53–0.90) eV. The third-order non-linear susceptibility also varies from (1.377–2.115) × 10 −12 esu with the addition of Dy 3+ ions. Moreover, the PL emission spectra highlighted the profound influence of Dy 3+ doping by producing strong blue ( 4 F 9/2 → 6 H 15/2 ,484 nm) and yellow ( 4 F 9/2 → 6 H 13/2 , 574 nm) emission bands upon 351 nm excitation, while a weaker band is also observed at 668 nm ( 4 F 9/2 → 6 H 11/2 ). The study of CIE chromaticity coordinates suggests the possibility of deploying these materials for solid-state lighting applications.