Manipulating Upconversion Luminescence of Rare Earth by Photonic Crystals

Rare earth doped upconversion materials have been widely used in display, anti-counterfeiting and bio-imaging fields due to their high chemical stability and low biotoxicity. The host lattice and doped ions of the upconversion materials determined their luminescence intensity and colors. Photonic crystals(PCs) are periodically arranged structures of materials with different refractive index. The most notable feature of PCs is the existence of photonic band gap(PBG). Light with a wavelength within the PBG cannot pass through the PC and will be reflected back. Therefore, PCs have excellent ability to manipulate light. This paper reviewed the research progress about the luminescence manipulating of rare earth doped upconversion materials by one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional PCs, and introduced the method of controlling the luminescence by adjusting the relative position of the PBG and the upconversion emission peaks. We mainly focused on the ability of three-dimensional PCs with inverse opal or opal structures to control upconversion luminescence. For inverse PCs, the use of upconversion materials or other materials to construct inverse opal PCs to control upconversion luminescence was discussed in detail. For opal PCs, three-dimensional PCs constructed by colloidal microspheres with different refractive index were introduced for the regulation of the upconversion luminescence. Finally, the development in the study about co-effect of plasmon resonance and PBG to enhance luminescence was summarized, and the future developing directions of upconversion luminescence regulation by PCs were prospected. © 2020, Science Press. All right reserved.