Article pubs.acs.org/JPCC
Delineating Mechanisms of Upconversion Enhancement by Li+ Codoping in Y2SiO5:Pr3+ Ezra L. Cates,† Angus P. Wilkinson,‡ and Jae-Hong Kim*,† †
School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and ‡School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States ABSTRACT: Codoping with Li+ has become a common method for improving optical efficiency in oxide-based upconversion luminescent materials, yet the mechanisms of enhancement have remained ambiguous. Herein, we delineate the major ways by which Li+ enhances visible-to-ultraviolet upconversion in the phosphor Y2SiO5:Pr3+ and quantify the relative contributions of each mechanism. Comparative photoluminescence spectroscopy, microscopy, and X-ray diffraction analyses show that of the total 9-fold increase in upconversion resulting from optimized Li+ doping ∼5% was due to crystallite enlargement, ∼50% due to a change in the host crystal polymorph, and ∼45% due to a reduction in activator ion clustering. Contrary to other studies, no significant upconversion enhancement arises from activator site geometry changes due to distortion by Li+, in the case of this material. To elucidate the role of Li+ doping in Y2SiO5, samples were prepared using other dopants for comparison, including Na+, Zn2+, Sc3+, and Zr4+.
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geometry.3−5,14 Lanthanide (Ln3+) UC phosphors rely strictly on parity-forbidden intra-4f electronic transitions which will exhibit low spontaneous transition probabilities in the presence of inversion symmetry according to the Laporte rule. This low transition probability can be detrimental, as it results in a low absorption coefficient, yet beneficial in that it also contributes to the characteristic long excited-state lifetimes of Ln3+ ions that allow UC to take place. Incorporation of a low concentration of Li+ into a phosphor crystal and the resultant localized distortion of activator cation sites have been stated by many to be the main cause of observed luminescence enhancements, wherein the distortion allows stronger absorption of excitation photons. However, several of these studies also report an increase in the radiative lifetimes of the emitting ions.1,2,5,15 Since the intrinsic radiative lifetime, τR, is inversely related to the spontaneous transition probability, Aba
INTRODUCTION The use of Li+ codoping in photoluminescent, oxide-based crystalline materials is a widely reported strategy to significantly enhance optical efficiencies. Particular success has been reported for the light frequency-amplifying upconversion (UC) phosphors, wherein upconverted emission enhancements of roughly an order of magnitude have resulted from addition of Li+ to host materials such as Y2O3,1−3 Gd2O3,4 BaTiO3,5 and Y2SiO5,6 regardless of the type of activator ions employed. The mechanism by which Li+ enhances luminescence is complex and actually consists of several independent mechanisms with the relative contribution of each being seemingly dependent on the specific material. The most obvious way by which Li + can improve luminescence is via a flux effect leading to larger crystallites. At annealing temperature, the presence of the codopant may result in a liquid phase at the grain boundaries that dramatically enhances the rate of crystallite formation. This has been reported to occur during sol gel, combustion, and conventional solid state syntheses.6−9 Larger crystallites with higher phase purity are produced, as evidenced by both electron microscopy and peak width analysis of X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. Crystallite enlargement results in a greater fraction of activator ions inhabiting the interior of the crystals, rather than the nearsurface where energy can be rapidly lost by transfer to surface defects with high vibrational energies.10 The latter effect is responsible for the poor UC performance of nanoscale phosphors in general, which many researchers have successfully mitigated through the encapsulation of UC nanoparticles with a transparent shell to prevent energy transfer to surface defects.11−13 Another frequently stated explanation for optical enhancement by lithium is the tailoring of the activator ions’ site © 2012 American Chemical Society
τR = (Aba )−1
(1)
and the probability of stimulated absorption, either from the ground state or an intermediate state, is given by g Wab = b Aba nω ga (2) (ref 16) (where ga and gb are the statistical weights of the absorbing and emitting states, respectively, and nω is the number of photons of the appropriate energy within the control volume of the excitation beam16), then by substitution of eq 1 into eq 2, it follows that any luminescence improvement resulting from a change in site geometry accompanied by Received: March 15, 2012 Revised: May 22, 2012 Published: May 23, 2012 12772
dx.doi.org/10.1021/jp302515t | J. Phys. Chem. C 2012, 116, 12772−12778
The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
Article
greater absorption will be accompanied by a decrease in radiative lifetime of both intermediate and final emitting states. It is thereby implied that lower activator site symmetry yields both higher absorption and emission probabilities. The data in the above references therefore suggest that other factors, aside from or in addition to site distortion, are responsible for the observed UC enhancement that accompanies the slower luminescence decay rates. While the flux effect and site geometry distortion warrant consideration in virtually any phosphor doped with Li+, still other mechanisms may be important, depending on the specific host crystal structure. For materials in which the trivalent activator substitutes a divalent host cation, such as Ca2+, lithium substitution can provide charge compensation and reduce the number of cation vacancies.17 Other studies have reported a phase change upon Li+ addition, which may or may not be optically favorable.6,18 There also exists much ambiguity as to the possibility and role of oxygen vacancies formed when Li+ replaces a trivalent host cation to form an aliovalent substitution. Activator site distortion, lattice expansion, and sensitization by F-centers have all been suggested in the literature as possible beneficial effects of these vacancies;19,20 however, there is little evidence showing whether or not charge compensation occurs as a result of vacancies or interstitial Li+. In the present work, we investigated the mechanisms by which Li+ codoping enhances upconversion efficiency in the visible-to-ultraviolet UC material, Y2SiO5:Pr3+. Yttrium oxyorthosilicate is a popular host crystal for optical applications due to its high chemical and mechanical stability. Doped with praseodymium, it has been studied for use in photonics,21 tunable UV lasers,22 and, in our previous work, light-activated antimicrobial surfaces.6 In the latter, we synthesized powder Y2SiO5:Pr3+ using a sol gel decomposition method, which produced aggregated irregular crystallites of
