Modification of the thermometric performance of the lifetime-based luminescent thermometer exploiting Ti3+ emission in SrTiO3 and CaTiO3 by doping with lanthanide ions

Abstract

Luminescence thermometry exploiting luminescence kinetics as a thermometric parameter is regarded as one of the most reliable temperature readout techniques. Transition metal ions are of particular interest in this application which is due to the possibility of modulating their spectroscopic properties by changing the strength of the crystal field of the matrix. In this work, we present a strategy to modulate the thermometric parameters including the relative sensitivity and useful temperature range of luminescent thermometers based on the lifetime of Ti3+ ions by introducing lanthanide (Ln3+) doping in SrTiO3 and CaTiO3. The mutual effect of the distortion of the local symmetry of the Ti3+ ions associated with the introduction of Ln3+ ions and/or the Ti3+ → Ln3+ energy transfer enabled relative sensitivities of SR = 5.87% K−1 at 140 K for SrTiO3:Dy3+ and SR = 4.51% K−1 at 251 K for CaTiO3:Gd3+.