Impact of host composition and dopant ion concentration on the thermometric properties of a Eu3+ activated fluoride-based single-band ratiometric luminescent thermometer

Abstract Luminescence thermometry (LT) is a remote technique of temperature monitoring, which shows immense potential and has become very popular among researchers in recent years. LT can be realized by several different measurement methods, but one of the most recently proposed and least studied relies on a single-band ratiometric (SBR) approach. In the SBR approach, temperature is achieved from a single emission band being photoinduced by two different excitation conditions, i.e. ground (GSA) and excitated (ESA) state absorption. However, the intensity of emission resulting from by ESA excitation is dependent on many factors such as host material properties, type and concentration of optically active dopant ions, surface effects and others, and thus in-depth understanding of photophysical processes is indispesible to enable intentional development of novel highly sensitive luminescent thermometer working based on SBR principle. In these studies, the impact of host matrix and interionic interactions occurring through cross-relaxation on the thermometric properties of a single-band ratiometric thermometer based on nanosized NaYF4 and NaGdF4 fluorides doped with Eu3+ ions are investigated and discussed. The maximum relative temperature sensitivity was equal SR=16.9%/K at 163 K for the NaGdF4:50%Eu3+ nanocrystals and was close to 1%/K over the entire higher temperature range analyzed.