Lanthanide-Doped Nanocrystals: Strategies for Improving the Efficiency of Upconversion Emission and Their Physical Understanding

The fundamental understanding of lanthanide-doped upconverted nanocrystals remains a frontier area of research because of potential applications in photonics and biophotonics. Recent studies have revealed that upconversion luminescence dynamics depend on host crystal structure, size of the nanocrystals, dopant concentration, and core-shell structures, which influence site symmetry and the distribution and energy migration of the dopant ions. In this review, we bring to light the influences of doping/co-doping concentration, crystal phase, crystal size of the host, and core-shell structure on the efficiency of upconversion emission. Furthermore, the lattice strain, due to a change in the crystal phase and by the core-shell structure, strongly influences the upconversion emission intensity. Analysis suggests that the local environment of the ion plays the most significant role in modification of radiative and nonradiative relaxation mechanisms of overall upconversion emission properties. Finally, an outlook on the prospects of this research field is given.