Vol. 42, Issue 2, pp. 345-352 (2012)

Abstract

Heavy metal lead borate glasses doped with rare earth ions were examined. The influence of heavy metal oxide PbO and activator concentration on luminescence properties of rare earth ions are discussed. Rare earth ions were limited to Eu³⁺, Dy³⁺ and Tb³⁺ which are emitting in the visible light. Increasing concentration of lead oxide in relation to boron oxide causes an increase in R (Eu³⁺), Y/B (Dy³⁺) and G/B (Tb³⁺) spectroscopic factors which correspond to the relative integrated luminescence intensities of ⁵D₀–⁷F₂/⁵D₀–⁷F₁, ⁴F_9/2–⁶H_13/2/⁴F_9/2–⁶H_15/2 and ⁵D₄–⁷F₅/⁵D₄–⁷F₆ transitions, respectively. Moreover, the influence of heavy metal oxide and activator concentration on luminescence decays from excited states of rare earth ions was examined in details.