Preparation and properties of photoluminescent rare earth doped SrO-MgO-B2O3-SiO2 glass

SrO-MgO-B2O3-SiO2 glass doped with Eu, Dy ions with high brightness and long afterglow was prepared by sintering at high temperature and weak reductive atmosphere. The luminescent properties of this photoluminescent glass have been studied systematically. The analytical results indicated that the main emission peaks appeared at 470 nm and belonged to broad-emission, which is ascribed to the 4f5d --> 4f transition of Eu2+ in the glass matrix. The glass only doped with Eu ions did not have the long afterglow phenomenon, but while co-doped Dy3+ ions in the glass matrix, the obvious long afterglow was observed, and its decay process contained fast-decay and slow-decay process. As for the mechanism of long afterglow of this photoluminescent glass, Dy3+ acted as the trap levels and captured the free holes in the system. It is the trapped-detrapped process that resulted in the long afterglow phenomenon of the photoluminescent glass. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.