A review on transition metal oxide nanoparticles and rare earth oxide doped borate and tellurite glasses: From structural, optical, and photoluminescence properties to next generation optical technology

This article focuses on the latest advancements in borate and tellurite glass systems, specifically on incorporating transition metal oxide nanoparticles along with rare-earth ions to tailor their multifunctional properties. The distinctive feature of the review lies in its systematic structure-property-application perspective, which provides deeper insight into how nanoparticles incorporation modifies the glass network and optical behavior. In these systems, transition metal oxide nanoparticles act as network modifiers, increasing non bridging oxygens sites and altering glass connectivity, while the combined effects of d-d transitions metal oxides and 4f-4f transitions of rare-earth ions enable tunable photoluminescence, optical band gap, refractive index, and Urbach energy. These modifications significantly influence physical, structural, optical, thermal, and photoluminescence properties of the glasses. The review is organized to discuss the structural characteristics of borate and tellurite glasses, followed by the influence of nanoparticles incorporation and rare earth doping on their structural and optical properties, and finally to highlight their potential applications in solid state lasers, white light-emitting diodes and for next-generation optical technologies.