Preparation and optical properties of Eu-doped Y2O3–Al2O3–SiO2 glass

Eu-doped Y2O3–Al2O3–SiO2 (YAS) glass with good transparency from ultraviolet to infrared region was prepared by furnace-cooling with a cooling rate (<0.5 °C/s) much lower than those (>102 °C/s) in conventional quenching approaches. The bulk density of Eu-doped YAS glass increased with increasing concentration of Eu2O3 and showed a linear dependence on the latter. Under ultraviolet excitations, the Eu-doped YAS glasses exhibited characteristic orange emissions of Eu3+ and the maximum emission intensity was obtained with Eu/(Y + Eu) = 0.09. Under excitation at 363 nm, a broad emission peak in violet-blue region was also observed, which was assigned to 4f–5d transitions of Eu2+.