Synthesis, structural, and optical behavior of erbium‐doped silicophosphate glasses for photonics applications

Erbium‐incorporated silicophosphate glasses are very desirable in principal sectors such as photonics, optoelectronics, lasers, and illuminating diodes. The focus of the current investigation has been on determining how the erbium dopant affects the optical, physical, and structural characteristics of the silicophosphate‐based glasses. The pure silicophosphate glasses and doped with various contents of erbium were prepared by the sol–gel process in this work. The noncrystalline character of the glasses synthesized was confirmed by the XRD patterns that were obtained. The optical measurement showed that the addition of trivalent erbium ions resulted in an increase in the refractive index of the samples and a decrease in their energy band gap values. It demonstrated the presence of P–O–P linkage stretching vibration modes that were both symmetrical and asymmetrical, P–O in PO4 bending vibration modes, OH group elongating and flexure vibrations, and P–O–H water absorption in glasses. The theoretical values of the optical basicity (Ʌth) increased from 0.465 to 0.472, while the values of the interaction parameter (A) decreased from 0.218 to 0.214 Å−3$$ {\overset{\ocirc }{\mathrm{A}}}^{-3} $$. Silicophosphate glasses doped with trivalent erbium ions show promise as optoelectronic and optical filter system materials. The optical base values of erbium‐doped silicophosphate glasses increase from 0.465 to 0.472 as the erbium concentration rises. However, the oxygen packing density decreases from 69.2794 to 65.5461 (g.atom)/L with increasing erbium concentration. This decrease can be attributed to the larger ionic radius of Er3+ compared to Si4+ and P5+ network formers, resulting in looser packing of oxygen ions in the glass structure. The network‐modifying role of Er3+ affects the configuration of bridging and non‐bridging oxygen atoms.