Structural and optical properties of Gd+3 doped Bi2O3-GeO2 glasses and glass-ceramics

The gadolinium doped Bi2O3-GeO2 glasses and glass-ceramics have been synthesized by melt quenching and heat treatment. Structural and optical properties of prepared glasses and glass-ceramics have been examined by x-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared, absorption and emission measurements. XRD results have shown that the precipitated crystalline phases in glass-ceramics samples are Bi2GeO5, Bi2Ge3O9 and Bi4Ge3O12. [BiO3] and [GeO4] units are the main structural units present in Bi2O3-GeO2 glass and glass-ceramic network confirmed by IR spectra. Optical band gap values of prepared glass and glass-ceramic systems obtained from absorption spectra vary from 2.01 to 3.34 eV. The optical band gap values of glasses are larger than glass-ceramics. Bi2O3-GeO2 glass-ceramics have higher density values than glasses and densities present an increase with the elevated Gd3+ content. It is suggested that the luminescence under 366 nm excitation has been ascribed to different Bi-related emission centers. The CIE color coordinates and CCT values obtained under 366 nm excitation confirm that the Gd3+ doped bismuth germanate glasses and glass-ceramics exhibit white light emission. The most promising material for white light emitting applications within our research is found to be GC-2Gd with coordinates of (0.327, 0.314) and a CCT of 5753 K.