Luminescence and temperature sensing properties of KLu(MoO4)2:Ln3+ phosphors

Abstract

A series of phosphors based on KLu(MoO4)2 are synthesized by the citric acid assisted hydrothermal method combined with subsequent calcination in this paper. By doping Yb3+/Er3+, Yb3+/Ho3+ and Yb3+/Tm3+ into KLu(MoO4)2 host, the green, red and blue emissions are realized, respectively. Moreover, the amount of Yb3+/Er3+ doping can affect the fluorescence upconversion emission intensity. The temperature sensing property of KLu(MoO4)2: 20%Yb3+,0.8%Er3+ is explored in the range of 323–573 K. In the heating process, the maximum absolute sensitivity is 0.01187 K−1 at 498 K. In addition, by constructing the cycle process of heating and cooling, the maximum sensitivity relative deviation of the two processes is only −0.72%, which means the KLu(MoO4)2:Yb3+/Er3+ phosphor has excellent stability in temperature measurement. Our research demonstrates that the KLu(MoO4)2:Ln3+ phosphors have potential application prospects in the fields of temperature sensor and multicolor fluorescence.