Recent developments and progress of inorganic photo-stimulated phosphors

Photo-stimulated luminescence (PSL) is the process in which trapped charges are released by photons and produce luminescence through recombination. The variegated optical characteristics of photo-stimulated phosphors (PSPs) have drawn increasing attention and a large body of work encompassing mechanism and application of PSPs has been addressed. The optical data storage capacity resulting from abundant defect states enables PSPs to be applied to information storage. Moreover, PSPs provide potential application for anti-counterfeiting, as color changes due to the tunneling process. Recently, near infrared (NIR) light PSPs have been developed, exhibiting enormous potential for in vivo bio-imaging, as the stable and high noise-signal ratio characteristic of PSL. In this review, we devote to introducing the development and process of PSPs, and the challenge and future advance have also been demonstrated. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Society of Rare Earths.