Rare earth fluoride with dye-sensitized upconversion luminescence under dual-excitation wavelength

Abstract

Lanthanide doped upconversion nanophosphors (UCNP) exhibit excellent up-conversion luminescence under 980 nm laser. However, water molecules have strong absorption at 980 nm, and there is a risk of thermal damage to biological tissues by using such lasers. Here, by regulating the core–shell structure material and introducing Nd3+ ions as sensitizers in the shell layer, the NaYF4:Yb,Er@NaLuF4:Nd,Yb nanomaterials that can be excited by both 980 nm and 808 nm were successfully obtained. Both the bare nanoparticles and phospholipid-coated composites exhibit stronger upconversion luminescence under 808 nm excitation. Furthermore, the thermal effect experiments also confirmed that 808 nm was significantly better than 980 nm irradiation.