Spectroscopic studies of ZnO borate–tellurite glass doped with Eu2O3

Optical, physical and thermal properties of glasses with composition 24B 2 O 3  − (25 −  x ) ZnO − 51TeO 2 , x Eu 2 O 3 , mol% (where x  = 0.0, 0.5, 1 and 3%) were studied. The density, crystallization temperature, oxygen packing density and glassy temperature were found to increase with the addition of Eu 2 O 3 . The molar volume, optical band gap ( E g ) and refractive index values were found to decrease with increasing Eu 2 O 3 content. The FTIR measurements indicated that the continuous increase of europium concentration helped conversion of [BO 3 ] to [BO 4 ] groups in the base glass ZnO TeO 2 –B 2 O 3 . Thermal analysis reveals that the glass transition temperature T g , the glass thermal stability Δ T and the glass forming ability K g increased by the addition of Eu 2 O 3 . The transmission and absorption spectra of all glasses indicated that there is a decrease in the optical band gap E g values due to the enhancement of the number of non-bridging oxygen (NBO) atoms with the addition of Eu 2 O 3 . The studied glasses have high values of nonlinear refractive index n 2 and nonlinear optical susceptibility χ (3) with a good thermal stability. Thus, such glasses have promised applications in nonlinear optical devices.