Optical properties of photo-thermo-refractive glasses doped with terbium

In this study two types of photo-thermo-refractive glasses were investigated. First one was the classical photo-thermo-refractive glass doped with 0,007 mol.% Ce³⁺ co-doped with 1 mol.% Tb³⁺ and the second one did not contain any Ce³⁺ but only 1 mol.% Tb³⁺. These types of glass were exposed to the mercury lamp using a cut-off filter that do not transmit wavelengths shorter than 350 nm. After the heat treatment such glasses did not show any plasmon resonance absorption peak. But in samples of photo-thermo-refractive glass without any Ce³⁺ but only containing Tb³⁺ plasmon resonance absorption peak corresponded to silver nanoparticles was appeared at 430 nm after mercury lamp exposure without filter and subsequent heat treatment.