Abstract
We report the enhancement of both visible and near infrared (NIR) emissions from Nd(3+) ions via Ce(3+) sensitization in colloidal nanocrystals for the first time. This is achieved in citrate capped Nd(3+)-doped CeF3 nanocrystals under ultraviolet (UV) irradiation (λex = 282 nm). The lasing transition ((4)F3/2 → (4)I11/2) at 1064 nm from Nd(3+)-doped CeF3 nanocrystals has much higher emission intensity via Ce(3+) ion sensitization compared to the direct excitation of Nd(3+) ions. The nanocrystals were prepared using a simple microwave irradiation route. Moreover, the study has been extended to Sm(3+)-doped CeF3 nanocrystals which show strong characteristic emissions of Sm(3+) ions via energy transfer from Ce(3+) ions. The energy transfer mechanism from Ce(3+) to Nd(3+) and Sm(3+) ions is proposed.
Highlights
There is a surge in research interest towards developing lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped nanomaterials as they show sharp luminescence signals with longer excited state lifetimes
The average crystallite size is found to be 8.5 nm as calculated using the Debye–Scherrer equation, t = (0.9λ/β cos θ), where t stands for average crystallite size, λ denotes the wavelength (λ = 1.5418 Å) of incident X-ray, β denotes the corrected full width at half maximum (FWHM) and θ denotes the diffraction angle
The hexagonal phase CeF3 nanocrystals adopt the same structure as LaF3, and the space group of these two crystals is P3c1
Summary
There is a surge in research interest towards developing lanthanide (Ln3+)-doped nanomaterials as they show sharp luminescence signals with longer excited state lifetimes (in the range of μs to ms). Ln3+ ions show luminescence peaks over a wide electromagnetic spectrum. Interesting are those emitting in the near-infrared (NIR) region i.e. the spectrum with the wavelength range of 700 to 2100 nm. NIR luminescence of lanthanide ions (Ln3+) finds applications in NIR LED technology, lasers, solar energy conversion, medical science and telecommunication.[1,2,3,4] For example, Ln3+ ions such as Er3+, Nd3+, Tm3+ and Ho3+ have characteristic emissions in the NIR region and can be used as active materials for developing optical amplifiers.[5,6,7] In addition, NIR emission is quite valuable for biological applications because
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