Crystallization Mechanism and Optical Properties of Antimony-Germanate-Silicate Glass-Ceramic Doped with Europium Ions

Glass-ceramic is semi-novel material with many applications, but it is still problematic in obtaining fibers. This paper aims to develop a new glass-ceramic material that is a compromise between crystallization, thermal stability, and optical properties required for optical fiber technology. This compromise is made possible by an alternative method with a controlled crystallization process and a suitable choice of the chemical composition of the core material. In this way, the annealing process is eliminated, and the core material adopts a glass-ceramic character with high transparency directly in the drawing process. In the experiment, low phonon antimony-germanate-silicate glass (SGS) doped with Eu(3+) ions and different concentrations of P(2)O(5) were fabricated. The glass material crystallized during the cooling process under conditions similar to the drawing processes’. Thermal stability (DSC), X-ray photo analysis (XRD), and spectroscopic were measured. Eu(3+) ions were used as spectral probes to determine the effect of P(2)O(5) on the asymmetry ratio for the selected transitions ((5)D(0) → (7)F(1) and (5)D(0) → (7)F(2)). From the measurements, it was observed that the material produced exhibited amorphous or glass-ceramic properties, strongly dependent on the nucleator concentration. In addition, the conducted study confirmed that europium ions co-form the EuPO(4) structure during the cooling process from 730 °C to room temperature. Moreover, the asymmetry ratio was changed from over 4 to under 1. The result obtained confirms that the developed material has properties typical of transparent glass-ceramic while maintaining high thermal stability, which will enable the fabrication of fibers with the glass-ceramic core.