“Pseudo-TCELs” of Tm3+ induced ultra-highly sensitive fluorescence thermometers with adjacent emission peaks

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Up to now, fluorescence thermometers based on fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technology is difficult to meet high sensitivity and short recording wavelength range simultaneously. In this work, Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped oxyfluoride glass ceramics (GCs) were synthesized via melting-quenching method and subsequent thermal treatment. Well-crystallized Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped fluoride nanocrystals (NCs) have formed in the oxide glass matrix. UCL properties of Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped oxyfluoride GCs under excitation of 976 nm laser at room temperature (RT) were measured and studied, in which an unusual emission at 724 nm originated from 1D2→3F2,3 transition was recorded for the first time. Besides, temperature measurements capable of Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped oxyfluoride GCs was studied and ultra-high sensitivity and short recording wavelength range were achieved simultaneously based on “pseudo-TCELs” of Tm3+. The maximum Sr and Sa were obtained based on the “pseudo-TCELs” of Tm3+, 3F2,3→3H6 (I680 nm+700 nm)/1D2→3F2,3 (I724 nm), as values of 4.17% K−1 at 288 K and 13.95% K−1 at 498 K, which broke the limitation of ΔE on thermosensitivity and were significantly higher than existing luminescent thermometers. Moreover, the value of Sr based on the “pseudo-TCELs” of Tm3+ maintained larger than 1.12%K−1 in high temperature range of 350–500 K without obvious descending, superior to most previous reports. The “pseudo-TCELs” of Tm3+ provides a new strategy for obtaining high sensitivity based on adjacent emission peaks and short recording wavelength range simultaneously, contributing to significantly improve the quality and efficiency of temperature detection.