Er-Yb Codoped Ferroelectrics for Controlling Visible Upconversion Emissions

Abstract

Under a 980 nm laser pumping, quenching of green upconversion (UC) emission accompanied with enhancement of red UC emission observed was dominated by the energy back-transfer (EBT) process in Er(3+) and Yb(3+) co-doped PbTiO(3), BaTiO(3), and SrTiO(3) polycrystalline powders. The efficiency of the EBT process depends not only on Yb(3+) concentration but also on level match of the doped Er(3+) and Yb(3+) ions caused by the crystal fields with different symmetries. Our UC emission spectra and X-ray diffraction confirm that the centrosymmetric crystal field arising from reducing tetragonality causes level match of transition (4)S3/2-->I13/2 of Er(3+) and (2)F7/2-->(2)F5/2 of Yb(3+). This level match is responsible for enhancing red UC emission.