Influence of the Tb³⁺ concentration on the luminescent properties of high silica glass

Tb³⁺- doped high silica glass was prepared by sintering porous glass. The density, valence state and amount of Tb, transmittance, photoexcitation spectra, photoluminescence spectra, and cathodoluminescence spectra (CL) were recorded and the luminescence decay kinetics analyzed in details. These results show that the doping concentration in high silica glass is in direct proportion to the concentration in solution, and the density increases with the increasing concentration of rare earth ions as well as the intensity of emission spectrum. The largest emission intensity of 0.2 mol/L is more than 2 times higher than the intensity of the 0.05 mol/L. Besides, the “red” shift phenomenon could be distinguished clearly in the transmittance spectra. There is a broad band at the “red” region in the CL spectra. The decay time which is in the millisecond range in different spectral range were measured and analyzed revealing that the decay time of ⁵D₃ is shorter than that of ⁵D₄.