Transparent Infrared-Emitting CeF3:Yb-Er Polymer Nanocomposites for Optical Applications

摘要

Bright infrared-emitting nanocomposites of unmodified. CeF3Yb-Er with polymethyl-methacrylate (PMMA) arid polystyrene (PS), which offer a vast range of potential applications, which indudeoptical amplifiers, waveguides, laser materials, and implantable medical devices, were developed. For the optical application of these nanocomposites, it is critical to obtain highly transparent composites to minimize absorption and scattering losses. Preparation of transparent composites typically requires powder processing approaches that include sophisticated particle size control, deagglomeration, and dispersion stabilization methbdsleading to an increase in process complexity and processing steps. This work seeks to prepare transparent composites with high solids loading (> 5 vol %) by matching the refractive index of the inorganic particle with low cost polymers like PMMA and PS, so as to circumvent the use of any .complex processing techniques or particle surface modification. PS'nanocotriposites were found to exhibit'better transparency than the PMMA natiocomposites, especially at high solids loading (≥ 10 vol ). It was found that the optical transparency of PMMA nanocomposites was more significantly affected by the increase in solids loading and inorganic particlesize because of the larger refractive index mismatch of the PMMA nanocomposites compared to that of PS nanocomposites. Rayleigh scattering theory was used to provide a theoretical estimate of the scattering losses in these ceramic-polymer nanocomposites.