| 1. |
- Enrichi, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Ag nanoaggregates as efficient broadband sensitizers for Tb3+ ions in silica-zirconia ion-exchanged sol-gel glasses and glass-ceramics
- 2018
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Ingår i: Optical materials (Amsterdam). - : Elsevier. - 0925-3467 .- 1873-1252. ; 84, s. 668-674
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper we report the study of down-shifting silica-zirconia glass and glass-ceramic films doped by Tb3+ ions and Ag nanoaggregates, which combine the typical spectral properties of the rare-earth-ions with the broadband sensitizing effect of the metal nanostructures. Na-Tb co-doped silica-zirconia samples were obtained by a modified sol-gel route. Dip-coating deposition followed by annealing for solvent evaporation and matrix densification were repeated several times, obtaining a homogeneous crack-free film. A final treatment at 700 °C or 1000 °C was performed to control the nanoscale structural properties of the samples, resulting respectively in a glass (G) or a glass-ceramic (GC), where tetragonal zirconia nanocrystals are surrounded by an amorphous silica matrix. Ag introduction was then achieved by ion-exchange in a molten salt bath, followed by annealing in air to control the migration and aggregation of the metal ions. The comparison of the structural, compositional and optical properties are presented for G and GC samples, providing evidence of highly efficient photoluminescence enhancement in both systems, slightly better in G than in GC samples, with a remarkable increase of the green Tb3+ PL emission at 330 nm excitation: 12 times for G and 8 times for GC samples. Furthermore, after Ag-exchange, the shape of Tb3+ excitation resembles the one of Ag ions/nanoaggregates, with a broad significant absorption in the whole UV-blue spectral region. This broadband enhanced downshifting could find potential applications in lighting devices and in PV solar cells.
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| 2. |
- Enrichi, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Ag-Sensitized Yb3+ Emission in Glass-Ceramics
- 2018
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Ingår i: Micromachines. - : MDPI. - 2072-666X. ; 9:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rare earth doped materials play a very important role in the development of many photonic devices, such as optical amplifiers and lasers, frequency converters, solar concentrators, up to quantum information storage devices. Among the rare earth ions, ytterbium is certainly one of the most frequently investigated and employed. The absorption and emission properties of Yb3+ ions are related to transitions between the two energy levels 2F7/2 (ground state) and 2F5/2 (excited state), involving photon energies around 1.26 eV (980 nm). Therefore, Yb3+ cannot directly absorb UV or visible light, and it is often used in combination with other rare earth ions like Pr3+, Tm3+, and Tb3+, which act as energy transfer centres. Nevertheless, even in those co-doped materials, the absorption bandwidth can be limited, and the cross section is small. In this paper, we report a broadband and efficient energy transfer process between Ag dimers/multimers and Yb3+ ions, which results in a strong PL emission around 980 nm under UV light excitation. Silica-zirconia (70% SiO2-30% ZrO2) glass-ceramic films doped by 4 mol.% Yb3+ ions and an additional 5 mol.% of Na2O were prepared by sol-gel synthesis followed by a thermal annealing at 1000 °C. Ag introduction was then obtained by ion-exchange in a molten salt bath and the samples were subsequently annealed in air at 430 °C to induce the migration and aggregation of the metal. The structural, compositional, and optical properties were investigated, providing evidence for efficient broadband sensitization of the rare earth ions by energy transfer from Ag dimers/multimers, which could have important applications in different fields, such as PV solar cells and light-emitting near-infrared (NIR) devices.
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| 3. |
- Enrichi, Francesco, et al.
(författare)
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Visible to NIR downconversion process in Tb3+-Yb3+ codoped silica-hafnia glass and glass-ceramic sol-gel waveguides for solar cells
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Luminescence. - : Elsevier. - 0022-2313 .- 1872-7883. ; 193, s. 44-50
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells is strongly related to the spectral absorption and photo-conversion properties of the cell's active material, which does not exploit the whole broadband solar spectrum. This mismatch between the spectrum of the solar light and the wavelength dependent cell's response can be partially overcome by using luminescent conversion layers in front or in the back of the solar cell. In this paper, the investigation of Tb3+-Yb3+ co-doped SiO2-HfO2 glass and glass-ceramic waveguides is presented. Due to a down-conversion process based on cooperative energy transfer between one Tb3+ ion and two Yb3+ ions, a blue photon at 488 nm can be divided in two NIR photons at 980 nm. Films with different molar concentrations of rare earths, up to a total amount of [Tb+Yb] = 15%, were prepared by a sol-gel route, using dip-coating deposition on SiO2 substrates. For all the films, the molar ratio [Yb]/[Tb] was taken equal to 4. The comparison of the energy-transfer efficiency between Tb3+ and Yb3+ ions in the glass and in the glass-ceramic materials demonstrated the higher performance of the glass-ceramic, with a maximum quantum transfer efficiency of 179% for the highest rare earth doping concentration. Moreover, experimental results and comparison with proper rate equations modelling showed a linear dependence of the photoluminescence emission intensity for the Yb3+ ions 2F5/2 → 2F7/2 transition at 980 nm on the excitation power, indicating a direct transfer process from Tb3+ to Yb3+ ions. The reported waveguides could find applications not only as downconverting filters in transmission but also as efficient solar concentrators in the near-IR spectral region
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| 4. |
- Righini, Giancarlo C., et al.
(författare)
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Light management in solar cells : Recent advances
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Efficient light management is critical for the enhancement of the efficiency of solar cells. The performance of a solar cell is determined by the efficiency of the absorption process of light via excitation of electron-hole pairs and extraction of these generated charge carriers. The absorption, in turn, has a few limiting factors: one is related to the small size and acceptance angle of the active region, another to the reduced spectral sensitivity of the active material, which does not use a part of the solar radiation. Correspondingly, the energy harvesting may be improved in two ways: a) light trapping schemes may be adopted to make the cell 'thicker' by exploiting scattering and/or reflection effects. Plasmonic structures, constituted by patterned metal films or nanoparticles, demonstrated to be very effective for directing and enhancing the incident light beam. b) up- and down-conversion processes may be exploited to convert the frequencies of the solar spectrum from near-mid-IR and from blue-UV regions, respectively, to the region of maximum absorption of the cell. Thin glassy or glass-ceramic films doped with rare earth ions proved to be very suitable for this purpose. Here, an overview of recent results achieved in the use of plasmonic structures by different research groups will be reported, and different approaches will be compared.
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| 5. |
- Zur, Lidia Z., et al.
(författare)
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Comparison between glass and glass-ceramic silica-hafnia matrices on the down-conversion efficiency of Tb3+/Yb3+ rare earth ions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Optical materials (Amsterdam). - : Elsevier. - 0925-3467 .- 1873-1252. ; 87, s. 102-106
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, the investigation of energy transfer efficiency in Tb3+-Yb3+ co-doped SiO2-HfO2 glass and glass-ceramic waveguides is presented. Cooperative energy transfer between these two ions allows to cut one UV or 488 nm photon in two 980 nm photons and could have important applications in improving the performance of photovoltaic solar cells. Thin films with different molar concentrations of rare earths, up to a total concentration of 21%, were prepared by a sol-gel route, using dip-coating deposition technique on SiO2 substrates. The ratio between Yb3+ and Tb3+ ions in all the prepared thin films is constant and equal to 4. The energy transfer between Tb3+ and Yb3+ ions in glass and glass-ceramic waveguides shows the higher efficiency for glass-ceramic with a maximum quantum transfer efficiency of about 190% for the sample containing 19% of rare earths.
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