Multi-responsive terbium-doped zinc borosilicate glasses under optical, mechanical and thermo-mechanical stimulation

Abstract

In contrast to organic and semiconductor ceramic materials, conventional oxide glasses do not typically exhibit pronounced stimulus-response, stemming from their state of chemical bonding and structural isotropy. However, targeted selection of the glass matrix and additional ion species acting as functional components have enabled multi-responsive glasses, too. Here, we consider a multi-responsive all-inorganic zinc borosilicate glass using Tb³⁺ ions as the activator species. This material enables high responsivity to optical, magnetic, and thermo-mechanical stimuli, combined or alone and at low activation barrier. Being free of any crystals—as confirmed by combined X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy—typical glass properties such as optical homogeneity and the ability to be formed into a wide variety of shapes are retained. Glasses designed in such a way enable multi-modal response to combinations of external fields, in particular, thermal, mechanical, and optical, while maintaining visual transparency and environmental durability. Such a response can be utilized for logic operations or information storage, for example, in the visualization of mechanical stress, probes for thermal transport or multi-field dosimeters.