Luminescence Thermometry Study of a SiO2/Zn2SiO4:V Nanocomposite in the Cryogenic Range
摘要
Phosphor materials provide a versatile framework that has widely emerged in today’s industry due to their broad range of applications, including LEDs, TV screens, and optical contactless thermometry. The actual work aims to provide a clear insight into the structural, morphological and optical properties of 10%-vanadium-doped zinc silicate lattice incorporated into a porous silica matrix (SiO2/Zn2SiO4:V). The obtained nanocomposite was synthesized through a three-step sol-gel method under supercritical conditions of ethanol in a stainless-steel autoclave. The structural properties prove the arising of a mixed phase, with the zinc silicate acting as the minor one. The XRD technique used for structural properties finds its limits and cannot detect the presence of a third residual phase related to the ZnO phase, which is proved through Raman and optical absorbance techniques. The fingerprints of zinc silicate phase are well reported; typical Raman bands above 800 cm− 1 and a wide bandgap of about 5.18 eV. Additionally, the PL emission spectra were performed at [77–300 K] thermal range and proved a dominant strong green-yellow emission band, arising from the effect of V5+ ions. By lowering the measurement temperature, different vibrational emissions are arising that mostly match the different vibration Raman bands. More importantly, by utilizing a second broad emission band in the NIR region related to V4+ ions, we could conduct a robust luminescence thermometry study based on the band’s emission ratio. A linear pattern in the studied thermal range is obtained with a competitive maximum relative sensitivity of about 1.24%.K− 1 at 300 K. The findings of the actual study are promising and present the first attempt to explore the optical thermometry properties of vanadium-doped zinc silicate crystal.