Effect of Li+ ion sensitization and optical temperature sensing in Gd2O3: Ho3+/Yb3+

Ho3+/Yb3+ codoped Gd2O3 phosphor has been synthesized by solution combustion method. The concentrations of Ho3+ and Yb3+ were optimized to be 0.3 and 2.0 mol% respectively for maximum emission intensity. The effect of Li+ ion co-doping on phase structure and photo luminescence were investigated. It is found that there is no change in phase of the sample due to Li+ ion co-doping. However the Upconversion (UC) and Downshifting (DS) emission show a remarkable enhancement in intensity. It is concluded that, this enhancement in the emission intensity is mainly due to the change in crystal field around the Ho3+ ion and reduction in quenching centers. The optimum doping concentration of Li+ ion was found to be 20 mol%. We have further explored the temperature sensing behavior using the FIR technique. The maximum sensitivity is found to be 0.0092 K-1 at 505 K. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.