Photon conversion in lanthanide-doped powder phosphors: concepts and applications

The investigation of luminescent lanthanide doped nanostructures (LDNs) has attracted a great deal of interest in the last decades. This is a multidisciplinary research field in which scientific challenges as well as societal needs are addressed by chemists, physicists, and materials scientists. In this scenario, research groups involved in developing novel LDNs have concentrated their efforts on engineering structures with superior luminescence quantum efficiencies for photonics applications. In this article, we briefly present the strategy that we have been using to develop nanocrystalline lanthanide-doped powders with superior luminescence yield using the combustion synthesis technique. Furthermore, the use of these lanthanide-doped powders as up-conversion phosphors in temperature sensing, lighting and solar cell technologies is discussed.