Enhancement of blue upconversion mechanism in YLiF4:Yb:Tm:Nd crystals -: art. no. 113504

In this paper we present a comparison between YLiF4:Yb:Tm and YLiF4:Yb:Tm:Nd systems identifying the most important processes that lead to a 20 times enhancement of thulium blue upconversion emission, under excitation around 792 nm, for the double sensitized system. Analysis of the 483 nm and 1030 nm emissions for the samples with different concentrations of Nd3+ ions showed that energy transfer between Nd3+ and Yb3+ is the main mechanism and responsible for the enhancement in upconversion. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.