Vacuum ultraviolet luminescence of wide band-gap solids studied using time-resolved spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation

Abstract

Some highlights of the time-resolved vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) luminescence spectroscopy of solids using synchrotron radiation (SR) are outlined, including studies of the unique phenomenon crossluminescence (CL) and the contribution of time-resolved VUV spectroscopy to the understanding of 5d–4f transitions of rare earth ions in solids. The main properties of CL studied at different SR sources are described and some unclear aspects of CL are pointed out. The results of recent studies of some CL-active nanosize materials are presented. We describe the time-resolved experiments which led to the discovery of 5d–4f luminescence in the deep VUV region (near 10 eV) of Gd3+ and Lu3+ ions incorporated into some wide band-gap fluoride hosts. The results of high-resolution (Δλ ∼ 0.5 Å) studies of 5d–4f emission and 4f–5d excitation spectra of Gd3+ and Lu3+, which allowed the detailed analysis of electron–lattice coupling in these systems, are presented. Possible new developments in the femtosecond time-resolved spectroscopy of solids with a free electron laser are discussed.