Optical temperature-sensing phosphors with high sensitivities in a wide temperature range based on different strategies.

Abstract

Rare earth ion doped luminescent materials are considered potential candidates with a wide range of applications because of their unique optical characteristics. In this work, single-phase Yb3+-Er3+ and Yb3+-Tm3+ co-doped La1.55SiO4.33 (LS) phosphors of a hexagonal system for optical thermometers are reported. Three characteristic emissions of Er3+ were observed at 521, 553 and 659 nm in the LS:Yb3+,Er3+ phosphors under 980 nm excitation, which are assigned to the 2H11/2 → 4I15/2, 4S3/2 → 4I15/2 and 4F9/2 → 4I15/2 transitions, respectively. In the LS:Yb3+,Tm3+ phosphors, one can find two strong emissions at 474 and 790 nm and two weak emissions at 648 and 685 nm. Their upconversion (UC) luminescence mechanisms were studied from their pump-power-dependent spectra. When the samples were measured at various temperatures, their spectral features revealed that different fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) strategies can be used to characterize their optical temperature-sensing behaviors. The sensor sensitivities were determined from the temperature-dependent UC emission spectra using thermally coupled energy levels (TCELs) and non-TCELs, which had improved compared with those of some other reported optical temperature-sensing luminescent materials. The device fabrication indicated that the developed UC phosphors are promising for applications in optical thermometers.