Spectroscopic investigations on 1.53 μm NIR emission of Er3+ doped multicomponent borosilicate glasses for telecommunication and lasing applications

Highlights: • Er³⁺ ions activated multicomponent borosilicate (MBSER) glasses have been synthesized. • Judd-Ofelt (JO) phenomenological intensity parameters were estimated. • The Er³⁺ doped MBSER glasses exhibited strong emission at 1.53 μm. • Various laser parameters have been calculated and compared with other literature. • Radiative parameters suggest that MBSER10 glass is suitable for IR laser applications. The multicomponent borosilicate (MBSER) glasses activated with different concentrations of Er³⁺ ions (varies from 0.1 to 2 mol%) were prepared via conventional melting and rapid quench technique and studied their thermal, structural and spectroscopic characteristics by using DSC, XRD, FTIR, optical absorption, excitation and emission measurements. Judd- Ofelt analysis in correlation with the absorption and emission spectral profiles was performed for the evaluation of several radiative parameters of the as-prepared glasses. Visible and NIR luminescence were recorded at 379 nm excitation and a special consideration is given to 1536 nm emission corresponding to the ⁴I_13/2 → ⁴I_15/2 transition. McCumber theory (MC) is used to determine the stimulated emission cross-section from the calculated absorption cross-section and is found well matched with the emission cross-section obtained from Fuchtbauer-Ladenburg (FL) equation. Better radiative parameters (stimulated emission cross-section (σ_emi) = 15.78 × 10⁻²¹cm², effective bandwidth $(\Delta {\lambda }_{\mathrm{eff}}$) = 67 nm), laser (gain bandwidth (σ(λ_p) x Δλ_eff = 1.05 × 10⁻²⁵ cm³), optical gain (σ(λ_p) x τ_R) = 42.5 × 10⁻²⁵ cm²s)) and gain spectra characteristics suggests the MBSER glasses for optical amplifier and laser applications since they offer a broadened emission spectra in the NIR region.