Luminescence centers in silicate and germanate glasses activated by bismuth

Concentration series of silicate and germanate glasses activated by bismuth are studied. It is shown that luminescence in the IR region is controlled by several active centers related to bismuth. Based on a comparison of spectroscopic characteristics of the studied glasses with the data previously obtained for chloride glass, the observed centers were identified as Bi⁺, Bi ₂ ⁴⁺ , and Bi ₅ ³⁺ in germanate glass and Bi⁺, Bi ₂ ⁴⁺ in silicate glass.     

Fluorescence properties of Bi4Ge3O12(BGO) single crystals under laser excitation: Excited state dynamics and saturation effects

Laser-excited techniques were used to investigate the optical properties of bismuth germanate crystals. Absorption, reflectivity, excitation, emission, lifetime, time-resolved fluorescence, photoconductivity, thermally stimulated conductivity measurements were performed at various temperatures on single crystals of different origins.The absorption is shown to occur in bismuth and germanate centers while both intrinsic and perturbed Bi³⁺ ions together with impurities contribute to the total fluorescence.The emission mechanism at room temperature involves a thermally activated energy migration, and at low temperature localized emitting centers. Formation of deep holes in the wide emission band at room temperature reveals saturation effects on various luminescent centers, promoted by energy migration. Trapped exciton models are proposed to explain the excited state dynamics occurring at low and room temperature.     

The luminescence of Bi2Ge3O9

The luminescence properties of a new bismuth germanate (Bi₂Ge₃O₉) are reported and discussed in terms of intrinsic Bi³⁺ emission.     

Laser time-resolved spectroscopy studies of host-sensitized energy transfer in Bi4Ge3O12 : Er3+ crystals

Laser-excited, time-resolved spectroscopy techniques were used to investigate host-sensitized energy transfer in bismuth germanate crystals doped with erbium. The transfer characteristics at room temperature are consistent with a thermally-activated migration process. The transfer rate decreases exponentially as temperature is lowered and reaches a minimum near 75 K. An increase in the transfer rate is observed as temperature is lowered further and the transfer characteristics become consistent with a single step dipole-dipole interaction process. This low temperature behavior is correlated with the observations in undoped bismuth germanate at these temperatures of a significant shift to lower energy of the fluorescence peak position and a significant increase in the fluorescence lifetime. A trapped exciton model is proposed to explain these results.     

Time-dependent model of the growth of oxide crystals from melt by the Czochralski method

A numerical time-dependent model of the growth of oxide crystals from melt by the Czochralski method with weight sensor control has been developed. The approach proposed was used in a series of calculations of bismuth germanate and gallium-gadolinium garnet crystal growth.     

Luminescence of Cr<Superscript>3+</Superscript> impurity ions in Li<Subscript>2</Subscript>Ge<Subscript>7</Subscript>O<Subscript>15</Subscript> nanocrystals and clusters embedded in lithium germanate glasses

The properties of Cr³⁺-doped Li₂Ge₇O₁₅ (LGO) lithium germanate nanocrystals produced in lithium germanate glasses under isothermal heating were studied. The samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction and small-angle scattering, as well as by transmission electron microscopy. The luminescence spectra of the impurity chromium measured in lithium germanate glasses containing LGO crystals revealed transitions in Cr³⁺ ions residing in the glass phase and in LGO crystallites starting from extremely small clusters. This provided the possibility of following the process of crystallization of the lithium germanate glass from Cr³⁺ luminescence spectra. The effects observed in the Cr³⁺ luminescence spectrum revealed a ferroelectric phase transition in LGO nanocrystals embedded in the glass.     

High spin spectroscopy of 139Pr

The high spin states in N=80 ¹³⁹Pr have been investigated by in-beam γ-spectroscopic techniques following the reaction ¹³⁰Te (¹⁴N, 5n) reaction at E=75 MeV, using a gamma detector array, consisting of seven 23% compton-suppressed high purity germanium detectors and a multiplicity ball of fourteen bismuth germanate elements. Based on γ-γ coincidence data, the level scheme of ¹³⁹Pr has been considerably extended up to 7.2 MeV excitation. Tentative spin-parity assignments are done for the newly proposed levels on the basis of the DCO ratios corresponding to strong gates and the available information from the earlier light ion experiments.     

Enhancement of phase conjugate wave in cerium doped bismuth germanate crystal

The enhancement of phase-conjugnte wave in cerium-doped bismuth germanatecrystal(Ce:BGO) was investigated.The result indicated that the phase congugate mirror(PCM) reflectivity of the doped BGO is one order higher than that of pure BGO and the re-sponse time is also decreased for doped BGO.Their mechanism were discussed.     

Comparative investigation of up-conversion luminescence in Tm-doped oxide-chloride germanate and tellurite glasses

Tm³⁺-doped oxide-chloride germanate and tellurite glasses have been synthesized by conventional melting method. Intense up-conversion luminescence emissions were simultaneously observed at room temperature in these glasses. The possible up-conversion mechanisms are discussed and estimated. However, in these Tm³⁺-doped glasses, tellurite glass showed weaker up-conversion emissions than germanate glass, which is inconsistent with the prediction from the difference of maximum phonon energy between tellurite and germanate glasses. In this paper, Raman spectroscopy was employed to investigate the origin of the difference in up-conversion luminescence in the two glasses. Our results confirm that, besides the maximum phonon energy, the phonon density of host glasses is also an important factor in determining the up-conversion efficiency.     

Concentration of radiation displacement defects in BSO and BGO crystals irradiated by electrons or neutrons

This work is devoted to the calculation of the concentration of radiation displacement defects (RDD) in bismuth germanate and bismuth silicate crystals as a function of particle energy (electrons and neutrons). Energy dependencies of RDD concentrations are discussed in comparison with results for other complex oxide crystals. The obtained results show that for the case of electron irradiation the radiation hardness of BSO and BGO should be similar to other oxide crystals, but for neutrons is drastically smaller. Additionally, for the neutron irradiation, the efficiency of the production of defects in the oxide sublattice is drastically smaller than for other oxide crystals.      

Heat source optimization in a multisection heater for the growth of bismuth germanate crystals by the low-gradient Czochralski method

The growth of bismuth germanate crystals with uniform heater control has been simulated within the time-dependent approach. To optimize the multisection heater control, the global heat transfer optimization problem in a crystallization setup was considered. A new control algorithm, based on the solution of the optimization problem, is proposed.     

Raman spectroscopic investigation on femtosecond laser induced residual stress and element distribution in bismuth germanate glasses

Localized microstructure and elemental redistribution were induced in bismuth germanate glasses by irradiation with high repetition rate 800 nm femtosecond laser pulses. The confocal Raman spectra were examined to study the redistribution of elements and residual thermal stress. The microscopic Raman spectra indicated that the residual thermal stress increases from the unmodified region to the center of the laser modified region, while Bi is enriched at the boundary area of the inner structure of the laser modified region relative to Ge. Electron microprobe analysis further confirmed the elemental redistribution of Bi and Ge, which agrees well with the Raman spectral analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Broadband 2 μm emission and energy-transfer properties of thulium-doped oxyfluoride germanate glass fiber

High near-infrared transparency Tm³⁺-doped germanate bulk glass and fiber have been fabricated and 2 μm emission properties demonstrated. Energy-transfer processes in the germanate glass and fiber are discussed. The emission spectra are obtained from both bulk glass and fiber with the excitation of a 794 nm laser diode. The results indicate that the line width of the Tm³⁺:³F₄→³H₆ emission spectra measured in fibers is narrower than that of the bulk glass sample and shifts to longer wavelengths with increment of fiber length. The extended overlap integral method is used to calculate the microparameters of energy transfer and critical distance. A model is derived to better understand of the energy-transfer process of thulium ions in the germanate glasses responsible for emission at 2 μm. The study indicates that Tm³⁺-doped germanate fibers with a large core diameter has proved to be promising infrared optical and high-power level laser materials.     

Multiphonon relaxation of rare earth ions in borate,phosphate, germanate and tellurite glasses

Non-radiative multiphonon relaxation rates were obtained for excited electronic states in borate, phosphate, germanate and tellurite glasses. The rates were calculated from the intensities of fluorescence in the visible range of the spectrum, the measured radiative transitions and the decay times of fluorescence. A functional dependence was found between the relaxation rates and the energy gaps of the rare earth ion. It was shown that by changing the glass host from the borate to tellurite matrix, an increase in visible fluorescence was achieved. This was especially notable in Er³⁺, where the increase of fluorescence from germanate to tellurite was by a factor of 15.     

Polarization-Independent Ultrasonic Modulation of Light in Gyrotropic Cubic Bismuth Germanate Crystals

An intermediate regime of light diffraction by ultrasound propagating along the [001] and [110] axes of a gyrotropic cubic bismuth germanate crystal is investigated. The possibility of polarization-independent light modulation in the intermediate regime of diffraction close to the Bragg regime is shown. The dependences of the diffraction efficiency on the incident light polarization azimuth at different ultrasonic wave intensities are given.     

Feasibility of low-energy radiative-capture experiments at the LUNA underground accelerator facility

The LUNA (Laboratory Underground for Nuclear Astrophysics) facility has been designed to study nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest. It is located deep underground in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory, Italy. Two electrostatic accelerators, with 50 and 400 kV maximum voltage, in combination with solid and gas target setups allowed to measure the total cross-sections of the radiative-capture reactions ^2H²H(p, )^3He³Heand ^14N¹⁴N(p, )^15O¹⁵Owithin their relevant Gamow peaks. We report on the gamma background in the Gran Sasso laboratory measured by germanium and bismuth germanate detectors, with and without an incident proton beam. A method to localize the sources of beam-induced background using the Doppler shift of emitted gamma rays is presented. The feasibility of radiative-capture studies at energies of astrophysical interest is discussed for several experimental scenarios.     

Femtosecond Laser-Written Waveguides in a Bismuth Germanate Single Crystal

We demonstrate the fabrication of symmetric waveguides in a bismuth germanate （BGO） single crystal using a double line approach by an 80Ohm [emtosecond laser. The optical attenuation of the single mode waveguide is measured to be 4.2 dB/cm at 633nm. The influence of pulse energy and focal depth on the end facet of the irradiated region is also studied. This technique is promising to fabricate buried BGO waveguide arrays used in positron emission tomography systems.     

Optical properties of Er doped GeO2-PbO glass: Effect of doping with Bi2O3

The optical properties of binary and ternary germanate glasses 40.3GeO₂-59.7PbO, 31.3GeO₂-26.8PbO-41.9Bi₂O₃ and 31.5GeO₂-40.4PbO-28.1Bi₂O₃ (wt%) doped with Er³⁺ were investigated. The Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters were calculated and the near-infrared luminescence as well as the upconversion efficiency was analyzed. We observed that the ternary germanate glass containing the highest concentration of Bi₂O₃ presented the largest emission bandwidth for ⁴I_13/2 → ⁴I_15/2 transition and the highest infrared-to-visible upconversion efficiency among the samples studied. These results demonstrate that not only the presence of Bi₂O₃ but also the careful choice of its molecular weight plays a key role in optimizing parameters for using germanate glasses for photonics applications.     

Low temperature hysteresis of light reflection from bismuth germanate single crystals

We measured the temperature dependences of light reflection and transmission of bismuth germanate single crystals upon cyclic variation of their temperature in the range of 94–340 K. We revealed an asymmetric temperature hysteresis of reflection, which is accompanied by a change in the Rayleigh scattering. Heating of crystals, in contrast to their cooling, is accompanied by a decrease in the reflection in the range of 100–287 K and near 310 K. We found that reflection minima in the first and second temperature ranges arise as a result of the action of different mechanisms. We assume that temperature changes in the reflection are related to structural phase transitions in the superficial layer.     

Amplitude-Phase Effects in Acousto-Optical Interaction in Gyrotropic Cubic Crystals

The amplitude-phase features of an intermediate regime of light diffraction on ultrasound in gyrotropic cubic crystals have been investigated. It is established that in the gyrotropic medium excited by ultrasound two coupled phase lattices of photoelasticity appear as a result of the rotation of the polarization planes of interacting waves. These lattices determine the polarization and energy characteristics of a diffracted light. For a gyrotropic cubic crystal of bismuth germanate, good agreement between the theoretical and experimental dependences of the efficiency of diffraction on the ultrasonic intensity in the intermediate regime close to the Bragg regime of diffraction is obtained.