Tb3+/Yb3+ codoped silica-hafnia glass and glass-ceramic waveguides to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells

In this paper we present the investigation of the energy transfer efficiency between Tb3+ and Yb3+ ions in silica-hafnia waveguides. Cooperative energy transfer between these two ions allows to cut one 488 nm photon in two 980 nm photons and could have important applications in improving the performance of photovoltaic solar cells. Previous works revealed that for a given concentration of donors (Tb3+), increasing the number of acceptors (Yb3+) located near to the Tb3+ ion can increase the Tb-Yb transfer probability. However, when increasing the density of active ions, some detrimental effects due to cross-relaxation mechanisms become relevant. On the basis of this observation the sample doping was chosen keeping constant the molar ratio [Yb]/[Tb] = 4 and the total rare earths contents were [Tb + Yb]/[Si + Hf] = 5%, 7%, 9%. The choice of the matrix is another crucial point to obtain an efficient down conversion processes with rare earth ions. To this respect a 70SiO2-30HfO2 waveguide composition was chosen. The comparison between the glass and the glass-ceramic structures demonstrated that the latter is more efficient since it combines the good optical properties of glasses with the optimal spectroscopic properties of crystals activated by luminescent species. A maximum transfer efficiency of 55% was found for the highest rare earth doping concentration.