Plasmon Assisted Luminescence in Rare Earth Doped Glasses

Abstract

Incorporation of metallic nanoparticles in rare earth doped oxide glasses has been introduced as an interesting method to enhance their optical properties. Controlling the size and shape of metallic nanoparticles is a challenging issue which depends strongly and ambiguously on concentration, time and temperature of heat-treatments. In this chapter, we firstly revisit the importance of materials science in general and the rare-earth doped glasses in particular. The performance of rare earth ions in glassy matrices, the probable interactions and the related theories are discussed. Moreover, the incorporation of metallic nanoparticles and their effect on modification of optical properties of rare earth doped glasses is reviewed. Finally, several examples of enhancement and quenching of stokes and anti-stokes luminescence of rare earth ions doped in different glasses are summarized. The incorporation of the metallic nanoparticles is a promising method to improve the optical properties of different oxide glasses for diverse applications such as amplifiers, solid state lasers, sensors, etc. However, to understand the complete role of metallic nanoparticles and control their size distribution and shape, further research is necessary.