G. M. Salley, R. Valiente and H. U. Güdel
Phonon-assisted cooperative sensitization of Tb3+ in SrCl2:Yb, Tb
J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 14, 5461-5475 (2002)
Abstract:
Excitation into the Yb3+ 2F5/2 excited states
leads to visible-by-eye green luminescence spanning the spectral region from 490
to 790 nm, with a quadratic power dependence. Optical absorption, luminescence,
and excitation spectroscopy as well as pulsed measurements on single-crystal
SrCl2:Yb(1%), Tb(1%) are used to determine the upconversion (UC)
properties of this system. The upconverted luminescence is easily detectable by
eye from RT to 100 K, at which point the intensity drops significantly and a
change in colour from green to blue is observed. Pulsed measurements coupled
with excitation spectroscopy lead to the unambiguous assignment of a
phonon-assisted cooperative sensitization mechanism as the dominant UC process
for T>50 K with VIS/NIR photon ratios on the order of 10–2%
for a laser power of 56 W mm–2. Below 50 K, the dominant UC emission
becomes the well-known Yb-Yb cooperative luminescence around 500 nm, with a
consequential reduction of Tb3+ emission by more than three orders of
magnitude from RT to 10 K.