Luminescence of silver molecular clusters and semiconductor quantum dots for spectral radiation conversion in photonic devices

This paper presents a review of researches of luminescent optical glasses and fibers containing silver molecular clusters and semiconductor quantum dots. These materials can be applied for spectral radiation conversion in photonic devices, including fiber optic sensors of electrical discharge and temperature, luminescent solar concentrators. Spectral conversion of radiation enhances sensitivity of fiber optic sensors of electric arc and spark. The reason is the effective excitation of waveguide modes, reduced signal losses and effectively matched spectrum of optical signal and sensitivity spectrum of silicon photodetector. Studied glasses and fibers can be used for construction of luminescent solar concentrators in photoelectric converters. Multi-cascade structure containing layers with different excitation spectrum improves the efficiency of concentrator. The optical glasses with silver molecular clusters co-doped with rare earth ions such as samarium or terbium have a high temperature sensitivity of luminescence. It is perspective to use them as sensitive elements of temperature fiber optic sensors.