Enhancement of dual-broadband NIR emissions in Ag NPs embedded tellurite glass doped with Er^(3+)/Tm^(3+)/Ho^(3+) ions

Tellurite glasses combined with metal silver nanoparticles(Ag NPs) and Er^(3+)/Tm^(3+)/Ho^(3+) ions were synthesized using melting and quenching technique, and the enhanced two-band near-infrared(NIR) fluorescence induced by Ag NPs was reported. Upon the excitation of 808 nm laser diode(LD), dual-broadband and flat NIR fluorescence ranging from 1 350 nm to 1 600 nm and from 1 600 nm to 2 200 nm with full width at half maximum(FWHM) of 154 nm and 374 nm respectively in Ag NPs embedded tellurite glass doped with appropriate concentrations of Er^(3+)/Tm^(3+)/Ho^(3+) ions has an obvious enhancement of about 40% with respect to the glass sample without Ag NPs, which is attributed to the local field effect caused by Ag NPs and energy transfer from Ag species to rare-earth ions. The enhanced dual-broadband and flat NIR fluorescence enables us to develop various NIR band photonic devices flexibly.