Investigation on Upconversion Luminescence and Optical Temperature Sensing Behavior for Ba₂Gd₂Si₄O₁₃:Yb³⁺-Er³⁺/Ho³⁺/Tm³⁺ Phosphors

Abstract

To explore new phosphors for temperature sensing with high detection sensitivity, the Yb3+-Er3+/Ho3+/Tm3+ doped Ba2Gd2Si4O13 (BGS) was designed. Different strategies were introduced based on the upconversion (UC) luminescence. For BGS:0.2Yb3+,0.02Er3+, the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of two green emissions of Er3+ shows a gradual enhancement with increasing temperature due to the thermally coupled levels. The piecewise expression of sensitivity was proposed in the temperature range of 293–553 K based on the Boltzmann distribution. For BGS:0.2Yb3+,0.01Ho3+, the FIR of the red to green emissions of Ho3+ changes with temperature, showing a linear relationship from 293 to 453 K. The absolute sensitivity was gained to be 0.0452 K–1. For BGS:0.2Yb3+,0.02Tm3+, the high absolute and relative sensitivities were both achieved by employing the thermally coupled (3F2,3F3) and 3H4 levels of Tm3+. The above study could have special reference to the development of new luminescent materials with high sensitivity.