Silver nanoparticles enhanced photoluminescence and the spectroscopic performances of Nd3+ ions in sodium lanthanum borate glass host: Effect of heat treatment

Silver nanoparticles (NPs) impact on the emission attributes of Nd3+ activated Na2O-La2O3-B2O3 vitreous host matrix has been studied and discussed in detail. The effect of nucleation and growth of Ag NPs occurred due to the different heat-treatment durations at the temperature of 450 degrees C has been discussed. Transmission electron microscopy measurement revealed the formation of spherically shaped Ag NPs in the studied samples. The median Ag NPs size was increased from 2 to 9 nm with heat-treatment durations. Utilizing the absorption spectra of Nd3+ ions, the phenomenological Judd-Ofelt (J-O) parameters (omega lambda= 2, 4, 6) were estimated. The optimized luminescence intensity at 1056 and 875 nm have realized for 10 h of annealing at 450 degrees C, with an enhancement factor of 160%. Moreover, the quantum efficiency for 1056 nm increased steadily with the heat-treatment duration. The stimulated emission cross-section and gain bandwidth for 1056 nm laser transition has shown to be 2.92 x 10-20 cm2 and 9.19 x 10-26 cm3 for the Ag NPs embedded glass-composite. The results exemplifies the suitability of Ag NPs embedded glass-composites for the fabrication of compact solid-state infrared lasers