Optical temperature sensing properties realized by isotropic negative thermal expansion in ScF3:Tb3+/Eu3+ phosphor ceramics

Abstract

The anomalous luminescence thermal quenching performance caused by negative thermal expansion has attracted much attention due to the potential application in optical fields. However, the downshifting emissions with abnormal thermal quenching achieved by isotropic negative thermal expansion for optical temperature sensing applications are still lacking. Herein, a large enhancement of red emission and a high temperature sensing performance are realized by isotropic negative thermal expansion in ScF3:Tb3+/Eu3+ phosphors ceramics. Specially, a selectively thermal enhanced red emission of Eu3+ from 5D0→7F2 with hypersensitive transition characteristics could be obtained due to the thermal stimulated lattice distortion. Attributing to the shortening of cation spacing, the energy transfer efficiency between Tb3+ and Eu3+ is largely enhanced with the increasing of the temperature from 303 to 473 K. The enhanced energy transfer leads to that the emission of Tb3+ firstly increases and then slightly decreases, whereas the emission from Eu3+ has been largely improved. Finally, an optical temperature sensing strategy based on the fluorescence intensity ratio of the sensitizer Tb3+ (signal ions) and the activator Eu3+ (referring ions) is designed, attributing to the distinguishable luminescence response to the temperature. The obtained maximum relative sensitivity is 1.04 % K−1 (@303 K). Besides, the sensing strategy based on lifetime mode also suggests a maximum relative sensitivity of 1.00 % K−1 at 343 K. It provides a feasible strategy to obtain an optical temperature sensing material with high emission efficiency at a high temperature, which sheds light on the design of luminescence materials keeping high luminescence stability in a wide temperature range in the fields of optical temperature sensing.