Glass formation, physicochemical characterization and photoluminescence properties of new Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–ZnO and Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–ZnS systems M. Nouadji a,c , Z.G. Ivanova b,⇑ , M. Poulain c , J. Zavadil d , A. Attaf a a Département de Physique, Université de Biskra, 07000 Biskra, Algeria b Institute of Solid State Physics, Bulgarian Academy of Science, 1784 Sofia, Bulgaria c Laboratoire Verres et Céramiques, Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France d Institute of Photonics and Electronics AS CR, 182 51 Praha 8, Kobylisy, Czech Republic article info Article history: Received 8 August 2012 Received in revised form 2 September 2012 Accepted 5 September 2012 Available online 21 September 2012 Keywords: Antimony oxide Physicochemical properties Optical properties Photoluminescence Rare earth doping abstract New Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–ZnO and Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–ZnS glasses have been prepared and characterized by basic phys- icochemical parameters such as the temperatures of glass transition (T g ) and crystallization (T p ), density (q) and microhardness (HV). The thermal stability DT = T p  T g is found to be considerably larger for the ZnO-containing system (130–210 °C) in comparison to ZnS-containing one (80–120 °C). The glasses stud- ied have high q and HV values, 5.65–5.80 g cm 3 and 284–352 kg mm 2 for both the systems, respec- tively. The compositional dependences of these parameters are discussed in relation to structural hypothesis. Er-doped samples exhibit all five 4f–4f inner shell radiative transitions falling into the studied range 600–1600 nm. Broad band luminescence of the host glass centered at about half the band gap has been observed at low temperature. The re-absorption of the host glass luminescence due to Er 3+ ions has been observed simultaneously with the 4f–4f emission in the wavelength range, where the host glass luminescence overlaps with the 4f–4f inner shell transitions. Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Heavy Metal Oxide Glasses (HMOG) have been a subject of numerous studies because of their specific properties that may be attractive both for fundamental purposes and for potential applications [1–3]. Especially, these glasses exhibit low phonon en- ergy, extended infrared transmission, high refractive index and large optical non linearity [4,5], in comparison to current oxide glasses. Among them, a particular attention has been focused on antimonite glasses because they are easily formed in a very large number of chemical systems [6,7]. The antimony oxide participates in the glassy network with SbO 3 tetrahedral structural units with the oxygen situated at three corners and the lone pair of antimony electrons (Sb 3+ ) at the fourth corner localized in the third equato- rial direction of Sb atom. This feature could make Sb 2 O 3 -based glasses suitable for potential applications in non-linear optical de- vices, such as ultrafast optical switches, power limiters, etc. [7–9]. Incorporation of rare earth (RE) elements into various oxide glasses has been a key to the development of many optical devices [10,11]. Among the trivalent RE ions, Er 3+ plays an important role in the development of broadband erbium doped fiber amplifiers at the third communication window (1.5 lm) and frequency up- converters [12,13]. Therefore, the choice of the host material glass is very important in the development of more efficient optical de- vices based on Er 3+ doped glasses. In a previous paper [14], the studies on glass formation in the ternary Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–MnO system together with physical and opti- cal propertis of the obtained glasses have been reported. This work concerns the characterization of new Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–ZnO (SPZO) and Sb 2 O 3 –PbO–ZnS (SPZS) glasses by investigating their basic thermal and physicochemical properties. Er-doped samples obtained by introduction of 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 mol% ErCl 3 have also been inves- tigated by photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy at room and low temperatures. The observed effect of re-absorption of the host glass luminescence at low temperature has been discussed in terms of 4f–4f up-transitions in Er 3+ ions. 2. Experimental Bulk glasses with starting compositions of 70Sb 2 O 3 –(30  x)PbO–xZnO and 70Sb 2 O 3 –(30  x)PbO–xZnS, where x = 0.5–3.0 mol%, were prepared from commer- cial products Sb 2 O 3 P 99% (Acros), PbO  99% (Alfa Aesar) and ZnO and ZnS > 99% from Sigma Aldrich. Synthesis was carried out in several steps: the mixing of the calculated amount of powders was introduced into a silica or soda-lime glass tube, about 10 mm in diameter. Mean batch weight was around 5 g. Rapid melting was achieved by flame heating obtaining a clear liquid. Then melt was cast onto a brass plate or squeezed between two metal plates. The obtained disks were polished after preheating around 200 °C. Estimated cooling rate ranges from 10 to 100 Ks 1 , which results in samples a few mm in thickness. 0925-8388/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2012.09.019 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: zoiv@abv.bg (Z.G. Ivanova). Journal of Alloys and Compounds 549 (2013) 158–162 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Alloys and Compounds journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jalcom