Influence of borate content on the radiative properties of Nd3+ ions in fluorophosphate glasses Original Research Article

Spectroscopic properties of Nd3+ in barium fluoroborophosphate glassy matrix have been analyzed by fitting the experimental data with the standard Judd–Ofelt theory. Various spectroscopic parameters viz. radiative transition probabilities, radiative decay time, fluorescence branching ratios, electric dipole line strengths, stimulated emission cross-sections and optical gain of the principal fluorescence transitions from the 4F3/2 metastable level are obtained. Results show that addition of borate content to the fluorophosphate matrix will reduce the fluorescence spectral properties of Nd3+. However, the radiative properties of the present fluoroborophosphate glassy matrix are found to be well improved over that of pure borate and phosphate matrix and is attributed to the influence of fluorine content in the glassy matrix. The changes in the position and the Judd–Ofelt intensity parameters are correlated with the structural changes in the host glass matrix. The shift of the hypersensitive band shows that the covalency of the rare earth to oxygen bond increases with the increase of Na2O content. This covalency effect and the formation of the BO4 groups with the addition of Na2O content are responsible for the increase in the radiative properties of the present system. Quantitative estimation of the non-radiative processes such as multiphonon relaxation and quenching by water content was carried out and the results show that both are below the critical level for optimum laser performance.