Blue cooperative luminescence in Yb3+-doped tellurite glasses excited at 1.064 μm

Blue luminescence emission around 480 nm through cooperative upconversion from pairs of Yb3+ ions implanted into 60TeO2–10GeO2–10K2O–10Li2O–10Nb2O5 tellurite glasses and excited by a cw laser at 1.064 μm is demonstrated. Cooperative luminescence emission enhancement owing to the temperature dependent multiphonon-assisted anti-Stokes excitation process of the ytterbium ions is also observed. The experimental results revealed a fourfold enhancement in the cooperative luminescence emission when the sample was heated in the temperature range of 20 °C–260 °C. The thermally induced enhancement is assigned to the effective absorption cross-section for the ytterbium ions which is an increasing function of the medium temperature.