Effect of Yb3+ ions on spectroscopic and optical properties of Bi2O3–B2O3–Li2O–PbO glass system

•Various mole percentages of Yb3 + ions are doped to bismuth borates glasses.•The doping of Yb3 + ions is confirmed by FTIR through the Yb-O bonds.•Yb-O results in the formation of NBO’s.•From the CIE diagram, it is cleared that the synthesized glass samples can be used in red and green lasers. Ytterbium incorporated Bi2O3–B2O3–Li2O–PbO glasses have been found to be suitable for various photonics applications. In the current article, ytterbium (0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mol%) were assorted with Bi2O3–B2O3–Li2O–PbO glass network formed by the conventional melt-quenching process. The XRD, SEM, DTA (DSC), FTIR, Optical absorption and Photoluminescence (PL) techniques employed to explore the detailed optical and structural features of the current glass samples. The analysis of XRD and SEM results confirmed the amorphous nature and their local structural changes perceived by DTA and FTIR results. From absorption data, indirect band gap energies, UE and cut of wavelength values are calculated. It is noticed that the PL properties improved with the increasing ytterbium compositional concentrations up to the level 2.5 mol%. The calculated CIE chromaticity coordinates from PL spectra confirmed quality of the light generated from the as-systemized glasses for LASER production. The obtained experimental results supported the usefulness of the developed glasses in the field of photonics.