Abstract
A novel method for demonstration of photoluminescence intensity distribution in upconverting nanorod bundles using confocal microscopy is reported. Herein, a strategy for the synthesis of highly luminescent dual mode upconverting/downshift Y1.94O3:Ho3+0.02/Yb3+0.04 nanorod bundles by a facile hydrothermal route has been introduced. These luminescent nanorod bundles exhibit strong green emission at 549 nm upon excitations at 449 nm and 980 nm with quantum efficiencies of ~6.3% and ~1.1%, respectively. The TEM/HRTEM results confirm that these bundles are composed of several individual nanorods with diameter of ~100 nm and length in the range of 1–3 μm. Furthermore, two dimensional spatially resolved photoluminescence intensity distribution study has been carried out using confocal photoluminescence microscope throughout the nanorod bundles. This study provides a new direction for the potential use of such emerging dual mode nanorod bundles as photon sources for next generation flat panel optical display devices, bio-medical applications, luminescent security ink and enhanced energy harvesting in photovoltaic applications.
Highlights
Catalysts or templates are widely used for the synthesis of 1D nanomaterials with better purity, large scale production at economical cost and good homogeneity[15]
The morphological and microstructural investigations of these luminescent nanorod bundles have been performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)/high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) techniques
(e) TEM micrograph of individual nanorod and inset shows the HRTEM of nanorod. (f) PL emission spectrum of Y1.94O3:Ho3+0.02/Yb3+0.04 nanorod bundles at excitation wavelength of 980 nm and inset demonstrates CIE colour coordinates for green emission. (g) PL emission spectrum of Y1.94O3:Ho3+0.02/Yb3+0.04 nanorod bundles at excitation wavelength of 449 nm and inset demonstrates CIE colour coordinates of green emission. (h) PL excitation spectrum of Y1.94O3:Ho3+0.02/Yb3+0.04 nanorod bundles at emission wavelength of 549 nm. (i) time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) decay profile of nanorod bundles recorded at room temperature while monitoring emission at 549 nm, at an excitation of 449 nm and inset shows the exponential fitting of the decay profile
Summary
Catalysts or templates (such as hydrothermal method) are widely used for the synthesis of 1D nanomaterials with better purity, large scale production at economical cost and good homogeneity[15]. Bundle composed of rare earth based nanorods have gained much attention due to higher surface area, better quantum yield and optical properties[1,13,15,32]. These bundles of nanorods could be synthesized by using customized hydrothermal method without any external assistance[32]. It is interesting to note that the bundles composed of rare earth based nanorods with dual mode emission (both downshift/down conversion as well as upconversion) are meagrely reported in literature These dual mode nanorod bundles open a new paradigm shift from nanorod to nanorod bundle structure for highly efficient generation optical display applications. 2D spectral distribution of PL intensity of these luminescent nanorod bundles have been investigated for the first time
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