Morphological, Structural and Optical Properties of Er3+-Doped SiO2-TiO2 Nanofiber

Abstract

SiO2 and TiO2 are often used in optical film due to their chemical stability and they have been proven as a favourable host for rare earth ions. Nanofiber has been widely studied because it possesses a high surface area per unit mass as well as low-cost production. In this study, sol-gel and electrospinning methods were used to synthesize and fabricate Er3+-doped SiO2-TiO2 nanofiber with different ratios of SiO2/TiO2, respectively. The morphological, structural, and optical properties of the nanofiber were studied. The FESEM result shows that the produced fibers have diameters between 67 to 538 nm. The FTIR spectra imply that the main structure of the nanofiber remains unchanged despite the increasing of TiO2 content in the host matrix. The obtained XRD results indicate that all samples correspond to the amorphous phase. Besides, the optical transparency of all the fabricated samples demonstrated a high transmittance (88% to 93%) which was ideal for photonic applications. The PL spectra showed strong green emission peaks associated to 2H11/2  4I15/2 of Er3+ transitions under an excitation wavelength of 350 nm.