Role of Ca2+ co-dopants on structural and optical properties of YF3:Tm3+/Yb3+ upconversion phosphor for improved optical thermometry

This work describes the synthesis, structural and optical properties of Tm3+/Yb-3 doped and Ca2+ co-doped YF3 upconversion phosphor material. The effect of Ca2+ ions co-dopant concentration is varied at 0, 10, 20 and 30 mol% to observe it's effect on YF3:Tm3+/Yb3+ through different characterizations like XRD, XPS, FE-SEM, FTIR, UV-vis and upconversion measurements. Dominant upconversion emission bands are found at 450, 476, 645 and 696 nm emission wavelengths corresponding to the D-1(2)-> F-3(4), (1)G(4)-> H-3(6) (1)G(4)-> F-3(4) and F-3(3)-> H-3(6) transitions within Tm3+ activator center on 976nm excitation. Finally, prepared samples are utilized in temperature sensing application demonstrations with Ca2+ ions co-dopants concentration variations. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.