Temperature Sensing Based on Thermal Population of Low-Lying 7FJ Levels of Trivalent Europium ions in GdVO4

Abstract Temperature sensing performance of GdVO4: Eu3+ phosphors have been studied using a method based on thermal coupling of the low-lying levels (7FJ: J = 0, 1, 2) of Eu3+. GdVO4: Eu3+ phosphors exhibit the outstanding luminescence characteristics with temperature and high detection sensitivity. Luminescence intensity ratio has been investigated between the 5D0 → 7F4 emission intensities when 5D0 excited from thermally populated low-lying excited states 7F1 and 7F2 with respect to 7F0 level. The luminescence intensity ratio monotonously increases with rising of temperature from 133 K to physiological temperature of 313 K. Specifically, the maximum value of relative sensitivity SR reach to 6.73% K−1 for first scheme and 2.87% K−1 for second scheme. The GdVO4:Eu3+ phosphor shows the excellent relative sensitivity of 1.23% K−1 in physiological temperature range (310 K), recommending its potential for applications in bio-medical field.