Optical properties of Eu3+/Dy3+ ion co-doped TeO2 - B2O3 - CaO - Al2O3 glass and its potential for solar energy harvesting

Solar-pumped laser (SPL) is an alternative way to enhance solar energy harvesting, where the sunlight is directly converted to the laser beam and then specifically targeted to irradiate a solar cell device. As an essential part of the SPL system, a glass-based optical gain medium is required to create amplified emission light. In the present work, we reported glass fabrication using a melt and quenching technique with a composition of (40-x) TeO2 + 39 B2O3 + 10 CaO + 10 Al2O3 + 1 Dy2O3 + x Eu2O3 so-called xEu/Dy glass, where x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, and 3.0 mol%. From the absorption spectra, we find that xEu/Dy glasses have various wavelength from ultraviolet to infrared that is comparable with solar spectra. Meanwhile, the emission spectra of glass show several peaks in the visible region including 480, 579, 590, 614, 652, and 699 nm belonging to Eu3+ and Dy3+ emission bands under λex = 395 nm. These emission lines are found similar to emission spectra under Dy3+ ion excitation λex = 388 nm as well as the X-ray induced luminescence spectra. The CIE 1931 color coordinate is found to shift from yellow to the reddish-orange region along with their CCT coordinate under different excitation wavelengths. Our investigation shows that the emission spectrum of 3.0Eu/Dy glass overlapped with the absorption band of dye, organic, and perovskite photosensitizers. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of present glass for optical gain medium in SPL particularly to be integrated with third-generation solar cells.