Developing Smart Temperature Sensing Window Based on Highly Transparent Rare-Earth Doped Yttrium Zirconate Ceramics

Lanthanide-ion-based thermometers have been widely researched and utilized as contactless temperature sensing materials. Cooperating with the unique optical and excellent physical properties of transparent ceramics, Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped Y2Zr2O7 transparent ceramics were successfully fabricated as temperature sensing window materials. Homogeneous distribution of elements inside samples together with high transmittance (nearly 73%) makes it possible as an observing window. Upon excitation at 980 nm, room-temperature luminescent performance was systemically researched for explaining the energy transfer mechanism between Yb3+ and Er3+ ions. The FIR method was introduced for thermally coupled energy levels to realize temperature sensing ability. Detecting sensitivity at different temperatures was also calculated (1.24% K-1 at 303 K), suggesting that Yb3+, Er3+:Y2Zr2O7 are adequate for high sensitivity temperature detecting application. It is also investigated that the concentration of Yb3+ ions not only affects the emission color at room-temperature but also has influence on the sensitivity of temperature and 10 mol % Yb3+, 2 mol % Er3+:Y2Zr2O7 was found to be the most sensitive one. A demonstration experiment was also carried out to validate its application as a smart temperature sensing window. These results suggested that Yb3+, Er3+:Y2Zr2O7 transparent ceramics can have potential for temperature monitoring applications, especially as novel window materials under extreme circumstances.

Automated summary

This study investigated the characteristics of Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped Y2Zr2O7 transparent ceramics as temperature sensing window materials. By studying the energy transfer mechanism and calculating the detection sensitivity, it was found that this material is suitable for high sensitivity temperature detection applications.