YVO4:Er3+/Yb3+ phosphor for multifunctional applications

This article reports luminescence studies on wet-chemical route prepared YVO4:Er3+/Yb3+ microdisc phosphor. The 980 nm laser excited upconversion (UC) emission intensity ratio of green to red bands is found too high to neglect the contribution from the red emission band, which is not observed normally in Er3+/Yb3+-doped materials. The red emission is also found absent in the downconversion emission under excitation at 316 nm. The variation of UC intensities with external temperature exhibits a well-fashioned pattern, which suggests that the H-2(11/2) and S-4(3/2) levels of Er3+ ion are thermally coupled. The YVO4:Er3+/Yb3+ phosphor has shown outstanding temperature-sensing behavior with maximum sensitivity of 0.0117 K-1 at 400 K. This material is also employed to develop a latent fingerprint in green color. Furthermore, the present phosphor could be useful for solar cell concentrators, drug delivery, and disease therapy applications. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America