OH- Removal and its Effect on the Fluorescent Properties of Er3+/Yb3+ Co-doped Barium Gallogermanate Glass

Barium gallogermanate glass is a good candidate material for infrared emission. However, the residual OH- in the barium gallogermanate glass destroys the glass network and degrades its fluorescence emission properties. Two methods, introduction of fluoride into glass raw materials and Reaction Atmosphere Process (RAP) based on introducting fluoride into glass raw materials, were adopted to dehydrate and then the effects of OH- concentration on the upconversion and 1.53| luminescence emission were investigated. Energy transfer rate between Er3+ and OH- is analyzed by a simple Forster-Dexter semi-empirical model. The results show that the RAP can reduce the OH- concentration up to one eleventh of the original. Correspondingly, the intensity of 545nm upconversion emission increases 2.8 times, which is obviously larger than the increase of 1.53| emission intensity. Energy transfer parameter between Er3+ and OH- is 1.75 0-19cm4/s,which is a little larger than that in phosphate glass.