Studies of the morphology and optical properties of nano erbium oxide embedded in PMMA matrix

Doping polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) with nano earth metal-oxides can play a significant role for modern optical devices. Films of PMMA doped with nEr(2)O(3) (PMMA/nEr(2)O(3), 4 and 8 wt%) were prepared using the casting technique. The size distribution of nEr(2)O(3) was investigated at the nanoscale level by using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and was found to be mixture of spherical particles ranging from 44 to 48 nm. The structure of the PMMA/nEr(2)O(3) films was investigated using Fourier infrared transmission specrtoscopy, FITR. The linear and calculated nonlinear optical properties absorption were also investigated. The optical band gap of our fabricated films decreased by 6% due to doping by nEr(2)O(3) at 8 wt%. Moreover, the estimation of the spectral moments (M-1 and M-3), energy dispersion, static refractive index (n(0)), the third-order susceptibility (chi((3))), nonlinear refractive index (n(2)) and the infinite dielectric constant (epsilon(infinity)) indicated a significant enhancement with increasing the concentration of nEr(2)O(3). The present results indicated that PMMA/nEr(2)O(3) could be used in different nonlinear optical applications such as image sensing and light-emitting diodes.