Materials Chemistry and Physics, Vol.171, 201-207, 2016
Energy transfer mechanism between Ce and Tb ions in sol-gel synthesized YSO crystals
The luminescence properties of Tb and Ce in Rare Earth Doped crystalline oxides largely depend on their relative concentrations: by increasing the dopant concentration, the luminescence profile changes from blue to green because of the energy transfer among centers. The kinetic properties of the luminescence of optically excited Terbium Cerium co-doped Y2SiO5 sol gel synthesized crystal powders have been investigated as a function of the Tb dopant concentration (Ce content fixed at 1% atomic). The interaction among different Tb emitting centers and their relation with Ce centers was explained within the Inokuti-Hirayama model for a dipole dipole energy transfer mechanism in the low-middle Tb concentration range whilst the Forster Dexter model was applied in the middle-high Tb concentration range. The kinetic model allows elucidating the role of sensitizer and activator ion as a function of Tb concentration, successfully estimating the energy transfer mechanism efficiency and calculating the critical Tb concentration. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.