Luminescent properties of nanostructured Dy3+- and Tm3+-doped lanthanum chloride prepared by reactive atmosphere processing of sol-gel derived lanthanum hydroxide

Dy3+- and Tm3+-doped lanthanum chloride was prepared via reactive atmosphere processing (RAP) of sol-gel derived hydroxide powders. The low-phonon energy chloride host facilitated the 1.3-mum emission from Dy3+ and the 1.2- and 1.4-mum emissions from Tm3+. The emission intensities of the Dy3+ and Tm3+ ions increased logarithmically with increasing RAP temperature. The dependence of emission intensities and lifetimes on the rare-earth (RE) concentration was also investigated. The emission intensity was found to increase up to. 1 mole % RE for both ions. Luminescence quenching was observed for concentrations exceeding 1 mole % for Tm3+ and 0.1 mole % for Dy3+. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.