Effect of Calcination Temperature on Up-Conversion Photoluminescence of the GdAlO3: Er3+,Yb3+ Phosphor

GdAlO3:1.5%Er3+,8%Yb3+ phosphors were prepared by calcining the precipitate precursor at different temperatures. Effects of calcination temperature on the phase composition, morphology, light absorption and up-conversion photoluminescence properties of the phosphors were investigated. It was found that the phosphors prepared at a temperature between 1000 and 1400◦C kept perovskite structure. With increasing calcination temperature, the crystallinity of the phosphor improved along with the increased particle size. The absorption at 977 nm increased while the concentration of residual OH− decreased with increasing calcination temperature. Under 980 nm excitation, the intensity of green emission at a wavelength of 546 nm increased nearly linearly with increasing calcination temperature when the calcination temperature of the phosphor was between 1000 and 1300◦C, accompanied by gradually decreased ratio of red-to-green emission. Based on the FT-IR spectra and energy levels of Er3+ and Yb3+, possible reasons causing changes in green emission intensity and the ratio of red-to-green with the calcination temperature of the phosphor were discussed. The nearly linear response of the red-to-green emission ratio of the GdAlO3:Er3+,Yb3+ phosphor to the calcination temperature at which it endured during preparation makes the precipitate precursor GdAlO3:Er3+,Yb3+ to be a promising candidate for upconversion thermal history sensing material. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by ECS. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 License (CC BY-NC-ND, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is not changed in any way and is properly cited. For permission for commercial reuse, please email: oa@electrochem.org. [DOI: 10.1149/2.0101503jss] All rights reserved.