Plasmon enhanced near-infrared quantum cutting of KYF_4: Tb^3+, Yb^3+ doped with Ag nanoparticles

Abstract

Novel quantum cutting (QC) phosphor KYF4: Tb3+, Yb3+ doped Ag nanoparticles (NPs) was prepared by using the sol-gel method. Plasmon enhanced near-infrared (NIR) QC involving Yb3+ ion at 975 nm (2F5/2→2F7/2) emission was achieved under the excitation of 374 nm (7F6→5D3) and 485 nm (7F6→5D4) of Tb3+ ions, respectively. The effect of Ag NPs on NIR QC luminescence was investigated, and the results show that QC luminescence intensity first increases, then decreases with the increase of the Ag NPs concentration. The maximum enhancement factor is about 1.9 when the concentration of Ag NPs is 0.5%. Our study may have potential application in the field of silicon-based solar cells.

Smart multifunctional drug delivery towards anticancer therapy harmonized in mesoporous nanoparticles

“…showed that lactose-modified mesoporous silica particles targeted effectively ASGPR and were internalised by energy-depended mechanism, predominantly via clathrin-mediated endocytosis [42]. Targeting is typically achieved using molecules (e.g.…”

Plasmon enhanced near-infrared quantum cutting and simulation analysis of β-NaYF_4:Tb^3+, Yb^3+ doped with Ag nanoparticles

“…The mismatch between the solar spectrum and the band gap energy of silicon semiconductor limits the photovoltaic conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells, because photons with energy lower than the band gap cannot be absorbed, while for photons with energy larger than the band gap, the excess energy is lost by thermalization of hot charge carriers [2]. In order to make full use of the solar energy, there have been increasing efforts on improving the conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells, and one of them is quantum cutting (QC) [3][4][5][6][7][8]. The QC process can convert one ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) solar photon (300-500nm) into two near-infrared (NIR) photons (~1000nm), which can be efficiently absorbed by silicon-based solar cells [9,10].…”

“…The mechanism of this plasmon enhanced upconversion luminescence of RE ions is called as local field enhancement effect (LFE) [18]. However, there is little report on plasmon enhanced QC luminescence of QC phosphors doped with noble metal NPs [6]. Furthermore, on one hand, most of QC phosphors are synthesized by sol-gel method or solid state reaction.…”

Near-Infrared Quantum Cutting Long Persistent Luminescence

“…The acceptor ion (A) is subsequently excited by the two-step energy transfer (ET) process, accompanied with two low-energy photons. In conventional QCL materials, many ions such as Pr 3+ 2, Tb 3+ 4, Tm 3+ 5, Ho 3+ 6, Er 3+ 7, Nd 3+ 8, Ce 3+ 9, Eu 3+ 10, Bi 3+ 11 and Eu 2+ 12 have been previously used as donor ions, owing to their ladderlike arranged energy levels that facilitate the photon absorption and subsequent ET steps. Yb 3+ ion is generally used as acceptor ion due to its absorption and emission in NIR region, corresponding to 2 F 5/2  →  2 F 7/2 transition.…”

“…Yb 3+ ion is generally used as acceptor ion due to its absorption and emission in NIR region, corresponding to 2 F 5/2  →  2 F 7/2 transition. Because the QCL process needs the low phonon frequency host to avoid the non-radiative losses, the present most efficient QCL has been achieved in some fluorides245.…”