Tunable luminescence and energy transfer properties in novel fluoro-oxide glass ceramics containing KGd2F7:Dy3+/Tb3+ nanocrystals

Abstract

Herein, a traditional melt-quenching technique was employed to fabricate borosilicate fluoro-oxide glass-ceramic (GC) containing Dy3+/Tb3+ co-doped KGd2F7 nanocrystals. The microstructural and spectroscopic characterizations demonstrated that the crystallites with composition-dependent properties were precipitated in glass matrix and the Dy3+ and Tb3+ ions were successfully incorporated into the lattices of monoclinic-phase KGd2F7 nanocrystals. The GC shows strong characteristic polychromatic yellow (Dy3+:576 nm) and green (Tb3+:544 nm) emissions upon excitations of both 389 nm and 278 nm lights. Moreover, the tunable emission from white to green combining Dy3+ and Tb3+ emissions can be adjusted effectively by incorporating concentrations of Tb3+ and exciting lights of 389 nm and 278 nm. Additionally, the energy transfer (ET) processes among Gd3+, Dy3+, and Tb3+ were systematically investigated by varied fluorescence emission spectra and decay curves. The results indicated that the Dy3+/Tb3+ co-doped fluoro-oxide GC with tunable multicolor emission have a great potential application in full-color displays.