Issue 19, 2018

A general strategy for tailoring upconversion luminescence in lanthanide-doped inorganic nanocrystals through local structure engineering

Abstract

A local structure around lanthanide (Ln3+) emitters in Ln3+-doped upconversion nanocrystals (UCNCs) is of fundamental importance in tailoring their upconversion luminescence (UCL) features. However, a general strategy responsible for the local-structure-dependent UCL in Ln3+-doped UCNCs has not been conclusively established to date. Herein, we report a new class of alkaline zirconium fluoride-based Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped UCNCs featuring a diversity of crystallographic structures for Ln3+ ion doping, which thereby allow us to thoroughly understand the origin underlying the local-structure-dependent UCL of the Er3+ ion for the first time. We reveal that the high-symmetry crystal lattice of Yb3+/Er3+ co-doped UCNCs may incur the large UCL red-to-green intensity ratio of Er3+ regardless of their identical elemental compositions. In combination with the first-principles calculations, we show that such local-structure-dependent UCL of Er3+ is primarily due to the varied electronic band structures induced by the Yb3+/Er3+ doping in different crystallographic structures of alkaline zirconium fluorides. These findings may open up a new avenue for constructing high-quality UCNCs with a tailored UCL profile and lifetime for diverse applications.

Graphical abstract: A general strategy for tailoring upconversion luminescence in lanthanide-doped inorganic nanocrystals through local structure engineering

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
22 Feb 2018
Accepted
15 Apr 2018
First published
16 Apr 2018

Nanoscale, 2018,10, 9353-9359

A general strategy for tailoring upconversion luminescence in lanthanide-doped inorganic nanocrystals through local structure engineering

H. Fu, P. Peng, R. Li, C. Liu, Y. Liu, F. Jiang, M. Hong and X. Chen, Nanoscale, 2018, 10, 9353 DOI: 10.1039/C8NR01519H

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