Improved temperature sensing performance of YAG: Ho3+/Yb3+ by doping Ce3+ ions based on up-conversion luminescence

The YAG: Ho3+/xCe(3+)/Yb3+ (x = 0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0 mol%) up-conversion luminescence (UCL) materials were prepared with a melting method utilizing CO2 lasers. The UCL spectra of the prepared samples were measured under the excitation of a 980 nm laser diode. Since the energy gaps between I-5(6) and I-5(7) levels, F-5(4)/S-5(2) and F-5(5) levels, F-5(2,3)/K-3(8) and F-5(4)/S-5(2) levels of Ho3+ match well with the energy gap between F-5(5/2) and F-5(7/2) levels of Ce3+, the generation of three cross-relaxation (CR) processes between Ho3+ and Ce3+ enables the doping of Ce3+ ions to tune the intensity and intensity ratio of the green emission to the red emission of the YAG: Ho3+/Yb3+ sample. The temperature sensing performances of the samples were analyzed. When both the temperature measurement range and sensitivity are considered, the YAG: Ho3+/0.2 mol%Ce3+/Yb3+ sample may be a more promising candidate for the temperature sensing material, the temperature measurement range of which is 298-1023 K, and the maximum absolute sensitivity and relative sensitivity are 0.0514 K-1 and 0.0094 K-1, respectively. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.