Energy transfer between Tm³⁺ and Er³⁺ in borate and phosphate glasses

A study of the energy transfer process between thulium and erbium is presented. From our measurements of fluorescence emissions and decay times the energy transfer efficiencies and probabilities were calculated. In this work the energy transfer which occurs between the upper levels in the UV and VIS regions of the two ions was especially studied. In the Tm-Er system, a mutual migration of energy occurs. The energy transfer from thulium to erbium is a multichannel process in which the energy is transferred from all the metastable levels of thulium to the matching energy levels of erbium. In addition, backtransfer of energy from erbium to thulium occurs by crossrelaxation of respective erbium transitions. The efficiency of energy transfer from thulium to erbium is independent of the levels between which the transfer occurs, but is dependent on the matrix. It is concluded that the energy is transferred via the phonons of the host glass.