Physical and optical properties of zinc tellurite Glass embedded Silver Nanoparticles co-dopedwith Nd3+/Er3+ ions

A series of Silver Nanoparticles embedded in the system of zinc-tellurite glass co-doped Neodymium/Erbium ions with the composition of (69.5-2.5x)TeO2–30ZnCl2–xNd2O3–xEr2O3–(0.5+0.5x)AgCl concentration from 0.0 to 3.0 mol% (x=0, 1, 2 and 3) have successfully been synthesized by melt-quenching techniques. The amorphous nature of the glass was confirmed from x-ray diffraction technique. The decrease of refractive index from 2.446 to 2.429 is attributed to the generation of bridging oxygen atoms via the conversion of TeO3 into TeO4 units. Conversely the increase in refractive index to 2.436 is attributed to the generation of non-bridging oxygen atoms via the conversion of TeO4 into TeO3 units. From the absorption edge studies, the value of the optical band gap EIopt.. and Urbach energy (DE) have been evaluated. The value of EIopt. lies between 2.34 and 2.83eV for the indirect transition while the Urbach energy values lies between 0.005 to 1.33eV. The experimental results indicate that Nd3+/Er3+ rare earth ions co-doped in the system of zinc-tellurite glasses embaded silver nanoparticles are a good candidates for solid state laser as active medium.