Lanthanide ions doped tetragonal LiYF 4 has became an investigative focus of upconversion luminescence (UCL) materials for its well properties of multi-photon UCL and as a comparable matrix material with hexagonal NaYF 4 . While the cause for its well performance on short bands emission is still unrevealed. After the exploration of crystal structure characteristic of tetragonal LiYF 4 , a hexagonal circle sublattice structure of Y 3+ with 0.3710 nm interval between adjacent Y 3+ ions and larger than 0.5 nm interval between meta-position and para-position Y 3+ ions were revealed. The energy transfer of rare earth ions are easy take place around the hexagonal circles or among the cluster of five adjacent trivalent ions. Base on the sublattice structure characteristic of tetragonal LiYF 4 , we have an idea to study UCL mechanism systematically of tetragonal LiYF 4 :RE by the construction of sublattice energy cluster 1M-xYb (M=Er, Ho, Tm) and the manipulation of crystal field symmetry by introducing different amount Yb 3+ ions and Sc 3+ or Hf 4+ ions, respectively. Hydrothermal method was employed to prepare LiY 0.98-x Yb x Er 0.02 F 4 , LiY 0.98-x Yb x Ho 0.02 F 4 , LiY 0.995-x Yb x Tm 0.005 F 4 , LiY 0.68-x Yb 0.3 Er 0.02 Sc x F 4 and LiY 0.68-x Yb 0.3 Er 0.02 Hf x F 4 series samples. A typical preparation process demonstrate as follows, at first, (1-x) mmol Y(NO 3 ) 3 (0.2 mol/L), x mmol (x=0.2, 0.5, 0.7 and 0.9) Yb(NO 3 ) 3 (0.20 mol/L) and Er(NO 3 ) 3 (0.02 mmol) solution was dropwise added into 20 mL deionized (DI) water with 1 mmol EDTA to form a solution under vigorous stirring for 30 min. Secondly, 3.0 mL LiOH (1.0 mol/L) and 4.0 mL NH 4 HF 2 (1.0 mol/L) aqueous solution were dropwise added to the solution under thorough stirring for 30 min until the solution completely became a white emulsion, the pH value of the emulsion is 3~4. Finally, the white emulsion was slowly transferred into a 50 mL Teflon-lined autoclave, sealed and heated at 190 ℃ for 18 h. The final products were collected by centrifugation, and then washed with DI water several times. The collected samples were dried at 60 ℃ over night. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Rietveld refinement method were employed to reveal the