Temperature sensing of Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ garnet phosphors with tunable sensitivity

In this study, a novel temperature-sensitive material, Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ phosphor, was successfully synthesized by a solid-state reaction method. Under 376 nm light excitation, the as-prepared phosphor presents both blue emissions of Bi3+ and orange red emissions of Sm3+ due to energy transfer from Bi3+ to Sm3+. Owing to the significant difference in thermal quenching properties and the distinguishable emission between Bi3+ and Sm3+ ions, the temperature sensing performance of the prepared phosphor was evaluated by measuring the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of Sm(3+)versus Bi3+. More importantly, for the first time, it was found that the absolute and relative sensitivities of Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ could be tuned by changing the concentration of activators to determine the optimal temperature measurement conditions, which opened up the possibility of improving the performance of fluorescence temperature sensing materials.

Automated summary

A novel temperature-sensitive material, Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ phosphor, was synthesized successfully by a solid-state reaction method. Under 376 nm light excitation, the prepared phosphor exhibits blue emissions from Bi3+ and orange red emissions from Sm3+ due to energy transfer. The temperature sensing performance of the phosphor was evaluated by measuring the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of Sm(3+)versus Bi3+. Moreover, it was found that the sensitivities of Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ could be tuned by changing the concentration of activators to determine the optimal temperature measurement conditions.