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Er3+/Yb3+ codoped niobium pentoxide glasses were fabricated by the aerodynamic levitation (ADL) method with rapid cooling rate. All samples with various doping concentrations showed good upconversion luminescence properties under 980 nm laser excitation. The structure, transmittance spectrum, and luminescence properties of the samples were systemically investigated by XRD, UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer, and upconversion spectra. All transparent samples exhibited green and red upconversion emissions centered at 532, 547, and 670 nm. Experimental results showed that the sample codoped with 1 mol% Er3+/Yb3+ has the strongest upconversion emissions, and the increase of the doped Yb3+ concentration results in the increased red emission and reduced green emission. The logI-logP plot of green emission indicated that the green emissions reach the saturation at high pump power excitation, deviating from the low-power regime. After one-photon energy transfer (ET) process, 4I11/2+4I11/24F7/2+4I15/2 process between the two neighboring Er3+ ions was responsible for the population of the 4S3/2/4H11/2 states. The niobium pentoxide codoped with Er3+/Yb3+ bulk glasses could be used in the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to improve the efficiency.


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Upconversion 32Nb2O5-10La2O3-16ZrO2 glass activated with Er3+/Yb3+ and dye sensitized solar cell application

Show Author's information Xiaoyu LI,aJiaying LIa,,bJianqiang LIa,c( )Hong LINdBo LIb
National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Advanced Materials Institute, Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

† These authors contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

Er3+/Yb3+ codoped niobium pentoxide glasses were fabricated by the aerodynamic levitation (ADL) method with rapid cooling rate. All samples with various doping concentrations showed good upconversion luminescence properties under 980 nm laser excitation. The structure, transmittance spectrum, and luminescence properties of the samples were systemically investigated by XRD, UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer, and upconversion spectra. All transparent samples exhibited green and red upconversion emissions centered at 532, 547, and 670 nm. Experimental results showed that the sample codoped with 1 mol% Er3+/Yb3+ has the strongest upconversion emissions, and the increase of the doped Yb3+ concentration results in the increased red emission and reduced green emission. The logI-logP plot of green emission indicated that the green emissions reach the saturation at high pump power excitation, deviating from the low-power regime. After one-photon energy transfer (ET) process, 4I11/2+4I11/24F7/2+4I15/2 process between the two neighboring Er3+ ions was responsible for the population of the 4S3/2/4H11/2 states. The niobium pentoxide codoped with Er3+/Yb3+ bulk glasses could be used in the dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) to improve the efficiency.

Keywords: upconversion, aerodynamic levitation (ADL), niobium pentoxide, rare earth concentration, solar cell

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Publication history

Received: 10 April 2017
Revised: 08 August 2017
Accepted: 22 August 2017
Published: 19 December 2017
Issue date: December 2017

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© The author(s) 2017

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51671181, 51674232, and 51471158), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 2152032), the Science and Technology Plan of Shenzhen City (Grant No. JCYJ20150827165038323), State Key Laboratory of New Ceramic and Fine Processing Tsinghua University (No. KF201417), the Open Funding Project of Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials (TIPC in CAS), and the Instrument Developing Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. YZ201520).

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