Rare-earth doped Polymethylmetacylate (PMMA) is a well known optical material for different types of applications including coatings, optical waveguides and the optical fibers. High rare-earth loading levels in a polymer host can be achieved by using an organic surfactant (ligand) attached to the heavy metal rare-earth ions. Here, we report bulk PMMA rods loaded with rare-earth doped LaF3 nanoparticles. Various surfactants with UV absorbing capabilities are employed to obtain luminescence from different rare-earth dopants. This type of organic-inorganic system does not only enable a broad excitation range for the rare-earths due to the donor-acceptor relation between the surfactant and optical center but also enables very high clarity bulk polymer materials.

Rare-earth doped PMMA has been successfully prepared and their preparation and characterization using fluorescence spectroscopy, UV-VIS spectroscopy and electron microscope will be discussed.