Influence of erbium oxide on structural, physical, elastic and luminescence properties of rice husk biosilicate zinc borotellurite glasses for laser application

•Silica, SiO2 extracted from rice husk with purity of 98.63% were used in the glass composition [{[(TeO2)0.7 (B2O3)0.3]0.7 (ZnO)0.3}0.85 (SiO2)0.15]1-x {Er2O3}x.•All parameters of longitudinal modulus, shear modulus, young's modulus and bulk modulus values for experimental data lie in the range from 55.0 GPa, to 250.0 GPa.•Erbium ions are excited from the ground level, 4I15/2 to the 4G9/2 while providing violet, blue and green emissions.•The optimized concentration of erbium oxide doped rice husk biosilicate zinc borotellurite is recorded at 0.01 molar fraction. Nowadays, active search for more efficient and improved glass material to be employed as laser host has been take place in order to have laser with enhanced performance. In this research, erbium oxide doped rice husk biosilicate zinc borotellurite glasses have been fabricated successfully via conventional melt quenching technique. XRD pattern reveals that the prepared glasses are amorphous in nature while FTIR spectra records the presence of Si-O-Si, TeO3, BO4 as well as BO3 vibrational groups in the fabricated glasses. Increasing density from 3.3505 g/cm3 to 4.1852 g/cm3 along with the rigidity of the glass as hinted in the values for elastic moduli from 55.0 GPa to 250.0 GPa is caused by the incorporation of erbium oxide that reduce the amount of non-bridging oxygen in the glass matrix. Three bands that are recorded in PL spectra correspond to the violet, blue and green emission. Photoluminescence spectra of [{[(TeO2)0.7 (B2O3)0.3]0.7 (ZnO)0.3}0.85 (SiO2)0.15]1-x {Er2O3}x. [Display omitted]