High-sensitivity ratiometric thermometers of Yb3+/Er3+/Tm3+ co-doped LuScO3 single crystal fibers based on non-thermally coupled energy levels

Abstract

Fluorescence thermometry manifests tremendous attention for their potential applications in the temperature sensing, especially for combining wide operating temperature range with high sensitivity. However, the use of thermally coupled energy levels (TCLs) for temperature measurement has strict requirements for energy difference, which limits the sensitivity of detection. In order to satisfy higher sensitivity sensing, the pair of non-thermally coupled energy levels (NTCLs) of 4S3/2 and 3H4 has been innovatively designed. Herein, the sesquioxide Yb,Er,Tm co-doped LuScO3 single crystal fibers (SCFs) had been delicately grown by Laser Heated Pedestal Growth (LHPG) method. The fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) thermometry was realized based on the Er3+:4S3/2→4I15/2 (545–593 nm) and Tm3+:3H4→3H6 (750–850 nm) NTCLs. Such an obvious FIR-temperature change through the NTCLs presents an outstanding optical thermometric performance, yielding the high temperature sensing with wide range. The maximum value of absolute sensitivity was 2 orders of magnitude higher than the temperature measurement using TCLs. More importantly, the sesquioxide Yb,Er,Tm:LuScO3 SCFs exhibit superior thermal stability that will be helpful to obtain high precision temperature measurement. Hence, our findings might offer some useful inspiration for exploring high-sensitivity luminescent thermometers and enriching the research of temperature measuring materials.