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In this study, the upconversion (UC) emissions of Er3+ and Yb3+ co-doped SrZrO3 nanocrystals (NCs) were investigated in terms of the thermal annealing temperature and concentration of Er3+ ions and compared with the emissions under a near-ultraviolet (near-UV) excitation. The NCs were synthesized by the combustion method, and the as-synthesized NCs were post-annealed at high temperatures. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the grain sizes and crystallinity degrees of the samples increased with increasing annealing temperatures. The photoluminescence spectra of our samples exhibited strong green and very weak red emissions with the near-UV excitation, originating from the f-f transitions in the Er3+ ions. Interestingly, under near-infrared (near-IR) excitation, we identified sizable visible emissions at 525, 547, and 660 nm in our NCs, which indicated that the UC process successfully occurred in our NCs. These UC emissions were maximized in the NCs with an Er3+ concentration of 0.02 and thermal annealing at 1000 ℃. We found that the intensity ratios of red to green emissions increased with increasing annealing temperatures. We discussed the differences in the emissions between near-UV and near-IR excitations.


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Emissions of Er3+ and Yb3+ co-doped SrZrO3 nanocrystals under near-infrared and near-ultraviolet excitations

Show Author's information Hyeontae LIMJuyeong LIMSoyoung JANGY. S. LEE( )
Department of Physics, Soongsil University, Seoul 06978, Republic of Korea

† Hyeontae Lim and Juyeong Lim contributed equally to this work.

Abstract

In this study, the upconversion (UC) emissions of Er3+ and Yb3+ co-doped SrZrO3 nanocrystals (NCs) were investigated in terms of the thermal annealing temperature and concentration of Er3+ ions and compared with the emissions under a near-ultraviolet (near-UV) excitation. The NCs were synthesized by the combustion method, and the as-synthesized NCs were post-annealed at high temperatures. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the grain sizes and crystallinity degrees of the samples increased with increasing annealing temperatures. The photoluminescence spectra of our samples exhibited strong green and very weak red emissions with the near-UV excitation, originating from the f-f transitions in the Er3+ ions. Interestingly, under near-infrared (near-IR) excitation, we identified sizable visible emissions at 525, 547, and 660 nm in our NCs, which indicated that the UC process successfully occurred in our NCs. These UC emissions were maximized in the NCs with an Er3+ concentration of 0.02 and thermal annealing at 1000 ℃. We found that the intensity ratios of red to green emissions increased with increasing annealing temperatures. We discussed the differences in the emissions between near-UV and near-IR excitations.

Keywords: Er3+ and Yb3+ co-doped SrZrO3, upconversion, downshifting, nanocrystals, combustion method, annealing temperature

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Publication history

Received: 06 January 2020
Revised: 02 April 2020
Accepted: 22 April 2020
Published: 15 May 2020
Issue date: August 2020

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© The Author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning (NRF-2018R1D1A1A02086130).

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