Role of Yb3+ ion on the evaluation of energy transfer and cross-relaxation processes in Gd2Ce2O7: Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors.

Energy transfer (ET) and cross-relaxation (CR) processes play significant roles in regulating emitting colors and intensity of upconversion (UC) materials. Calculating the coefficients in ET and CR processes can provide visual descriptions for evaluating the UC luminescence properties. Here, we find that those ET and CR processes are responsible for the color-tunable properties in Gd 2 Ce 2 O 7 : Yb3+, Er3+ phosphors. By solving the rate equation, mathematical expressions are established to calculate the ET and CR coefficients based on the experimental UC spectra and lifetimes. The results are benefit to evaluate the efficiencies of ET and CR processes in quantization in different Yb3+ ion concentrations doped samples. The coefficients of ET process arise from 1.05 to 7.93 × 1017 cm3s−1 while those of CR process increase from 2.69 to 72.01 × 1017 cm3s−1 with increasing the Yb3+ ion concentration, which suggest that the CR and ET processes are efficient in Gd 2 Ce 2 O 7 host. Furthermore, potential temperature sensing properties are also evaluated according to the fluorescence intensity ratio of 2H 11/2 and 4S 3/2 levels and the maximal sensitivity (S) is achieved about 0.00337 K−1 at 503 K. This work provides an insight into the evaluation of those UC processes and reveals the capacity in color-tunable and temperature sensing aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]