Enhanced upconversion luminescence and optical thermometry in Er3+/Yb3+ heavily doped ZrO2 by stabilizing in the monoclinic phase. (28th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Kexiu; Wu, Hao; Pan, Guo-Hui; Wu, Huajun; Zhang, Liangliang; Zhang, Jiahua
• Is Part Of: Materials chemistry frontiers. Volume 5:Number 13(2021)
• Page Start: 5142
• Page End: 5149
• Publication Date: 2021-05-28
• Subjects: Materials science -- Periodicals; Chemistry -- Periodicals; 540
• DOI: 10.1039/d1qm00440a
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-1529

Abstract

Abstract : Stabilizing monoclinic ZrO2 :Er 3+, Yb 3+ by doping with Nb 5+ and realizing dual-color complementary thermometry. Abstract : Er 3+ and Yb 3+ heavily doped monoclinic ZrO2 (m-ZrO2 ) stabilized by Nb 5+ is prepared by solid-state reactions. The upconversion luminescence (UCL) of concentration optimized m-ZrO2 :2%Er 3+, 9%Yb 3+ shows a yellow emission which is found to be 4 times stronger than the red UCL of the optimized cubic ZrO2 :2%Er 3+, 14%Yb 3+ . It is revealed that monoclinic ZrO2 has faster radiative transition rates of Er 3+ and Yb 3+ than cubic ZrO2 because of the lower crystal symmetry in the monoclinic phase that enables higher 4f–5d mixing of rare earth ions. The enhanced radiative transition allows 9%Yb 3+ in the monoclinic phase to have a similar absorption of 980 nm excitation light to that of 14%Yb 3+ in the cubic phase, thus retaining the lower energy back transfer from Er 3+ in the green emitting state to Yb 3+ and lower concentration quenching of Yb 3+ in the monoclinic phase. The green and red dual-color optical thermometry behavior of m-ZrO2 has been explored. A large detectable temperature range, at which the absolute sensitivity is high, is realized through adopting this complementary optical thermometer. Repeated thermal experiments prove the stability of the m-ZrO2 as a temperature probe. Our results indicate that heavily doped m-ZrO2 is an excellent host for efficient luminescence of rare earth ions.