Studying host-guest interactions to control erbium luminescence at the nanoscale

A renaissance in the study of rare-earth doped materials for photonic applications has been seen during the end of the 20th century and into the new millennium. This is in part due to the surge in nanomaterial synthesis and funding. Nanoparticles hold tremendous potential in the areas of photonics, electronics, and biophotonics. However, room temperature emission from these nanomaterials is dependent upon several parameters. By controlling the excited state dynamics with a judiciously selected local environment, one can reduce the quenching mechanisms and efficiently emit light.; In this thesis, I will demonstrate how the host matrix, rare-earth ion concentration, crystal size, crystal phase, processing temperature, and co-dopants, affect the emission from Er3+ ions. This research was carried out with powdered crystals, in sol-gel derived glasses and glass-ceramics.