An intense NIR emission from Ca14Al10Zn6O35:Mn4+,Yb3+via energy transfer for solar spectral converters

Abstract

To date, most current reports on the development and optimization of solar spectral converters have described the utilization of energy transfer among rare-earth ions. Here, we introduce non-rare-earth ion Mn⁴⁺ to transfer energy to Yb³⁺, which can exhibit strong near-infrared luminescence. It can harvest UV-blue photons and exhibits intense NIR emission of Yb³⁺ around 1000 nm, perfectly matching the maximum spectral response of Si solar cells. It demonstrates for the first time that efficient energy transfer occurs with a decrease in the excited state lifetime and red photoluminescence (PL) from Mn⁴⁺ with increasing Yb³⁺ concentration. These results demonstrate that the Mn⁴⁺ ions can be an efficient and direct sensitizer harvesting UV-blue photons. It could provide new avenues for developing harvesting Si-based solar cells.