Green and red high-silica luminous glass suitable for near-ultraviolet excitation

We report on the preparation of transparent and colorless green-and red-emitting luminous glasses by sintering high-silica porous glass impregnated with rare-earth ions. These kinds of glasses can be efficiently excited by near-UV sources. The fluorescence of the glasses under near-UV excitation is dependent on energy transfer processes. In order to obtain strong visible emission, it is necessary to co-dope some optically inert rare-earth ions into the glasses. The roles of the optically inert rare-earth ions are discussed.