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Advanced Rare Earth Doped Functional Materials

A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Optical and Photonic Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 113

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Photonics Laboratory, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Interests: glass; glass-ceramic; rare-earth ions; gain media; luminescence; fiber; crystals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Photonics Laboratory, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Interests: bioactive glass; glass-ceramic; upconversion rare-earth ions; luminescence; fiber; crystals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the past decades, research on the spectroscopic properties of rare earth (RE) has quickly grown in importance, as RE ions play a fundamental role in various optical applications and advanced technologies, including lasers, optics, solar-energy conversion, displays and economical lighting, medical imaging, and quantum computing as well as rechargeable hybrid batteries, electronics, alloys, and magnets just to cite its few applications. Materials doped with RE elements have become vital due to their unique physiochemical properties, such as their distinct optical, magnetic, and electronic behaviors, enabling significant performance enhancements in these diverse fields.

Intense levels of research have been focused on developing new materials and designs that offer precise control over the sites of the RE ions and, consequently, their spectroscopic properties. For example, phosphors activated by Ce3+, Eu3+, and Tb3+ ions find application in lighting and displays, whereas crystals and glasses doped with Er3+ and Yb3+ can be used in lasers, optical fibers, and waveguides. Although the number of luminescent materials in different matrices (crystalline, amorphous, and glass ceramics, oxides, fluorides, chalcogenides, organics, etc.) or contained in molecular complexes has increased, there is a constant increase in demand for new RE doped materials to extend their practical applications.

This Special Issue highlights recent advances in Novel active devices and emerging applications of RE-doped optical materials. It focuses on innovative functional materials, particularly organic, crystalline, glass, and glass ceramics. Topics of interest include the latest research and advancement in luminescent materials, preparation and characterization methods, new processing methods for fabricating RE-doped glasses and glass ceramics, and advances in glass fibers and films. Toward this end, it is our pleasure to invite you to submit your manuscript to this Special Issue. Full papers, reviews, and communications are all welcome.

Dr. Khaldoon Nasser
Prof. Dr. Laeticia Petit
Dr. Nirajan Ojha
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • rare-earth ions
  • structure and material design
  • novel functional materials
  • glass, glass ceramic, crystals
  • luminescence
  • laser and gain media

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