Silver nanoparticles enhanced photoluminescence and the spectroscopic performances of Nd3+ ions in sodium lanthanum borate glass host: Effect of heat treatment

Silver nanoparticles (NPs) impact on the emission attributes of Nd3+ activated Na2O–La2O3–B2O3 vitreous host matrix has been studied and discussed in detail. The effect of nucleation and growth of Ag NPs occurred due to the different heat–treatment durations at the temperature of 450 °C has been discussed. Transmission electron microscopy measurement revealed the formation of spherically shaped Ag NPs in the studied samples. The median Ag NPs size was increased from 2 to 9 nm with heat–treatment durations. Utilizing the absorption spectra of Nd3+ ions, the phenomenological Judd–Ofelt (J–O) parameters (Ωλ= 2, 4, 6) were estimated. The optimized luminescence intensity at 1056 and 875 nm have realized for 10 h of annealing at 450 °C, with an enhancement factor of 160%. Moreover, the quantum efficiency for 1056 nm increased steadily with the heat–treatment duration. The stimulated emission cross–section and gain bandwidth for 1056 nm laser transition has shown to be 2.92 × 10−20 cm2 and 9.19 × 10−26 cm3 for the Ag NPs embedded glass–composite. The results exemplifies the suitability of Ag NPs embedded glass–composites for the fabrication of compact solid–state infrared lasers.