Radiative and non radiative spectroscopic properties of Er ion in tellurite glass

We have investigated in detail the mechanism of infrared emission and upconversion emission of Er³⁺ in tellurite glass as a function of the dopant concentration. Both the infrared and upconversion emissions are competing processes and the efficiency of infrared emission at 1534 nm is 100% at the lowest Er content (0.5 mol%) and reduces to 50% at higher dopant concentration (>2 mol%). The green upconversion emission at 548 nm is mainly due to the excited state absorption (ESA) from ⁴I_11/2, which populate the ⁴F_7/2 level. In addition to this, the possible energy transfer (ET) through Er³⁺(⁴I_11/2) + Er³⁺(⁴I_11/2) → Er³⁺(⁴F_7/2) + Er³⁺(⁴I_15/2) can also results in the green emission as is noticed from the concentration dependent efficiency change of the green emission. The fluorescence quenching of green emission with Er concentration may be related with the cross relaxation (CR) process ²H_11/2 + ⁴I_15/2 → ⁴I_9/2 + ⁴I_13/2. The red emission is due to the combined effect of the ESA from level ⁴I_13/2 to ⁴F_9/2, the energy transfer process described by Er³⁺(⁴I_13/2) + Er³⁺(⁴I_11/2) → Er³⁺(⁴F_9/2) + Er³⁺(⁴I_15/2) and the cross relaxation process.