Sol-Gel Photonic Glasses: From Material to Application.

In this review, we present a short overview of the development of sol-gel glasses for application in the field of photonics, with a focus on some of the most interesting results obtained by our group and collaborators in that area. Our main attention is devoted to silicate glasses of different compositions, which are characterized by specific optical and spectroscopic properties for various applications, ranging from luminescent systems to light-confining structures and memristors. In particular, the roles of rare-earth doping, matrix composition, the densification process and the fabrication protocol on the structural, optical and spectroscopic properties of the developed photonic systems are discussed through appropriate examples.

Novel Sol-Gel Route to Prepare Eu-Doped 80SiO-20NaGdF Oxyfluoride Glass-Ceramic for Photonic Device Applications.

Oxyfluoride glass-ceramics (OxGCs) with the molar composition 80SiO-20(1.5Eu: NaGdF) were prepared with sol-gel following the "pre-crystallised nanoparticles route" with promising optical results. The preparation of 1.

Eu as a Powerful Structural and Spectroscopic Tool for Glass Photonics.

The unique properties of the Eu ion make it a powerful spectroscopic tool to investigate structure or follow processes and mechanisms in several high-tech application areas such as biology and health, structural engineering, environment monitoring systems and quantum technology, mainly concerning photonics. The traditional method is to exploit the unique photoluminescent properties of Eu ions to understand complex dynamical processes and obtain information useful to develop materials with specific characteristics. The objective of this review is to focus on the use of Eu optical spectroscopy in some condensed matter issues.

Upconversion Luminescence of Silica-Calcia Nanoparticles Co-doped with Tm and Yb Ions.

Looking for upconverting biocompatible nanoparticles, we have prepared by the sol-gel method, silica-calcia glass nanopowders doped with different concentration of Tm and Yb ions (Tm from 0.15 mol% up to 0.5 mol% and Yb from 1 mol% up to 4 mol%) and characterized their structure, morphology, and optical properties.