Application of molecular dynamics techniques and luminescent probes to thestudy of glass structure: the SiO2-GeO2 case

In this paper, we report on the results obtained from molecular dynamic sim ulation of a Eu3+-doped germanosilicate glass. This simulation provides fur ther information on the structure. In particular it reveals a homogeneous d istribution of SiO4 and GeO4 units, a decrease of defects compared to SiO2 and GeO2 glasses, and a trend to clustering of the doping ions. Using the m odified crystal-field theory. the luminescence spectroscopic properties hav e been computed and comparison with experimental data has allowed a correla tion of the spectral features with two main types of local environment depe nding on the coordination number and on the medium-range arrangement around the doping ions. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.