High pressure luminescence of YVO4:Pr3+

Photoluminescence and time resolved photoluminescence spectra of YVO4 doped with Pr3+ obtained at high hydrostatic pressure up to 76 kbar applied in a diamond anvil cell are presented. At pressures lower than 60 kbar the steady state emission spectra consist of sharp lines peaking between 600 and 625 nm, related to (D2 -> H4)-D-1-H-3 transition in Pr3+ and two lines at 475 nm and 575 nm related to an uncontrolled amount of Dy3+ ions. At pressures above 68 kbar the Pr3+ and Dy3+ emission intensity decreases and the corresponding bands are replaced by a broad band peaking at 530 nm attributed to perturbed YVO4 host luminescence. The quenching of the (D2 -> H4)-D-1-H-3 emission with increasing pressure is accompanied by a shortening of its lifetime from 12.5 mu s at ambient pressure to less than 3 mu s at 60 kbar and has been attributed to nonradiative transition to the charge transfer exciton trapped at Pr3+ ion (Pr4++ electron bound by the Coulomb potential).