Study of Er³⁺ fluorescence on tellurite glasses containing Ag nanoparticles

Optical characteristics of tellurite glasses containing silver nanoparticles (NPs) and the influence on the emission spectrum of Er ³⁺ ions were studied. The transitions 4f ↔ 4f from erbium ions, mainly the ⁴I_13/2 → ⁴I_15/2 transition that involve upconversion energy process, have a strongly dependence with the chemical structure of the rare earth ion. In the present work, silver nanparticles (NPs) embedded in the host vitreous material, show a significant enhance (or quenching) on the erbium fluorescence due the long-range electromagnetic interaction between the plasmon surface energy of the Ag NPs (Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance -LSPR) and the Er³⁺ ions.