Invention:
This invention is a highly stabilized trivalent cerium (Ce3+)-doped boron-aluminosilicate (BASL) glass created with the highest Ce3+ concentration among currently known glass materials. Analysis of Ce3+-doped BASL glass samples properties confirmed the absence of both strong concentration quenching and Ce3+ oxidation. This Ce3+-doped BASL glass has multiple special applications in advanced photonics manufacturing, laser applications, as well as high energy radiation and particle detection and visualization, medical imaging, radiation-resistant components and devices, neutrino and dark matter detectors, illumination, holography, fiber-optic, and magneto-optic devices.
Background:
mong glass materials, only silicate glasses generally show favorable mechanical properties, chemical durability, thermal shock resistance, and thermodynamic stability, making them generally more convenient to handle. However, their doping level is limited due to the facile transition from Ce3+ to Ce4+ during glass melting. Heavy metal oxide, fluoride, or chalcogenide glass materials have more favorable spectral properties, but they are very hard to handle, produce in large volumes, and/or dope with high Ce3+ content while maintaining high emission efficiency. Therefore, they have limited benefits compared to crystalline materials.
Trivalent cerium (Ce3+)-doped materials possess extraordinary optical and physical properties including no absorption transitions across the entire visible and near-infrared wavelength region (400-3500 nm), broadband UV and visible luminescence (250-700 nm), large Verdet constant, high resistance to radiation and photo-darkening, and high scintillation yield. Although photonic devices based on highly Ce3+-doped crystals and films have seen significant progress, their fabrication processes are expensive, complex, and time-consuming particularly when compared with glass, and their applications are also restricted by the drawbacks of crystals and films, such as small apertures, brittleness, and anisotropy. These shortcomings are addressed by the newly developed Ce3+-doped BASL glass.
Applications:
- Photonics manufacturing
- Laser applications
- Radiation and particle detection
- Radiation-resistant components and devices
- Magneto-optic devices
- Fiber-optic devices
- Medical imaging
- Holography
Advantages:
- Novel development of Ce3+-doped BASL glass
- Highest concentration of trivalent cerium among all glass materials
- High luminescence efficiency
- Greater glass resilience
- Enables advancements in photonics manufacturing
