Thermally Enhanced Upconversion Luminescence by Negative Expansion in Er3+/Yb3+ Co-doped ZrScW2PO12 Phosphors
摘要
In this work, a series of Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped ZrScW2PO12 phosphors are prepared by a facile high-temperature solid-state sintering method. The influence of the Er3+/Yb3+ co-doping on the phase structure, particle morphology, and chemical composition of ZrScW2PO12 is characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). It is demonstrated that the substitution of Sc3+ ions with Er3+ and Yb3+ ions will cause lattice expansion, but will not change the crystal structure, particle size, or morphology. Additionally, these Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped ZrScW2PO12 phosphors produce two green emission peaks and one red emission peak under laser excitation at 980 nm. Impressively, when the temperature increases, the cell volume of the Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped ZrScW2PO12 phosphors shrinks without a phase transition, leading to the reduced energy transfer distance between sensitizer Yb3+ ions and activator Er3+ ions, and greatly enhanced green emission peak of Er3+. The maximum relative sensitivity (Sr) and absolute sensitivity (Sa) of Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped ZrScW2PO12 reaches 1.13%/K and 1.05%/K, implying that the rationally designed Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped ZrScW2PO12 phosphors have great potential in high-performance temperature sensors.