Photoluminescence and its temperature dependence of phosphate and fluorophosphate optical glasses doped with fullerenes

Microphotoluminescence is studied for fullerene-doped phosphate and fluorophosphate optical glasses, where microstructures are formed by connecting nearby -[PO₄]- tetrahedra with chemical bonds between fullerenes and non-bridging oxygen anions. Fullerene-related tetrahedral chains result in significant changes of photoluminescence. Scanning photoluminescence measurements indicate that a large number of fullerene-related microdomains aggregate as self-organized islands. The temperature dependence of the photoluminescence demonstrates that the non-radiative decay and ionic environments of fullerene complexes are different at the various temperatures. The changes of the ionic environments and anionic potentials of the fullerene complexes are caused by laser excitation induced activation of cations followed by their percolation migration and retrapping in the vitreous matrix.