Neodymium oxide nanocrystals are synthesized by an inverse microemulsion method. XRD, XPS and HRTEM are used to characterize the properties of the neodymium oxide nanocrystals. Results show that the prepared neodymium oxide particles have obvious "column” structure with a column width of 400 ~ 600 nm and a length of 1 ~ 4 µm and have nanocrystalline structure with a high crystallinity. Neodymium-doped TiO2/organically modified silanes (ormosils) organic–inorganic composite films were prepared by using a sol–gel spin coating method. Up-conversion emission and optical transmittance of the films baked at different temperature were studied. Results indicate that the up-conversion emission occurs at about seven wavelength numbers of 387, 404, 421, 436, 450, 478 and 487 nm, of which the bright blue emission at 436 nm has the strongest intensity. There is a high optical transmittance value of above 88% for all the samples in the wavelength number 500 ~ 1000 nm. Optical waveguide properties including the optical transmission modes and loss of the composite films were measured. The photochemical properties of the composite films were also demonstrated by FTIR spectra. Besides, an energy level diagram was used to explain the mechanism of the up-conversion emission from neodymium oxide nanocrystals. Finally, strip waveguides with different waveguide sizes were built in the composite films through a UV soft nanoimprint technique and the surface morphology of the waveguides was observed by SEM. The as-prepared neodymium-doped composite films have potential applications in the areas of photonics and micro-optical devices.

中文翻译：

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氧化钕纳米晶掺杂的 TiO2/ormosils 复合薄膜和条形波导的上转换发光

氧化钕纳米晶体是通过反相微乳液法合成的。XRD、XPS 和 HRTEM 用于表征氧化钕纳米晶体的性质。结果表明，制备的氧化钕颗粒具有明显的“柱状”结构，柱宽400~600 nm，长度1~4 μm，纳米晶结构，结晶度高。掺钕TiO2/有机改性硅烷（ormosils )采用溶胶-凝胶旋涂法制备有机-无机复合薄膜，研究了不同温度下烘烤薄膜的上转换发射和透光率。结果表明上转换发射发生在大约7个波长数处。 387、404、421、436、450、478和487 nm，其中436 nm处的亮蓝色发射强度最强。所有样品在500~1000 nm波长范围内都有88%以上的高透光率值。测量了光波导特性，包括光传输模式和复合膜的损耗。复合薄膜的光化学性能也通过 FTIR 光谱进行了证明。此外，还使用能级图来解释氧化钕纳米晶体上转换发射的机制。最后，通过紫外软纳米压印技术在复合薄膜中构建不同波导尺寸的条形波导，并通过扫描电镜观察波导的表面形貌。所制备的掺钕复合薄膜在光子学和微光学器件领域具有潜在的应用价值。