A conventional high temperature solid state method was utilized to prepare CaO-Y 2 O 3 , which is a potential candidate for manufacturing crucible material to melt titanium and titanium alloys with low cost. Meanwhile, Yb 3+ ions and Er 3+ ions were selected as the sensitizers and activators respectively to dope into CaO-Y 2 O 3 , aimed at providing real-time optical thermometry during the preparation process of titanium alloys realized using fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technology. The results reveal that a high measurement precision can be acquired by using the Stark sublevels of Er 3+ 4 F 9/2 to measure the temperature with a maximum absolute error of only about 3 K. In addition, by analyzing the dependence of 4 I 13/2 → 4 I 15/2 transition on pump power of 980 nm excitation wavelength, it was found that the laser-induced thermal effect has almost no influence on the temperature measurement conducted by using the FIR of the Stark sublevels of Er 3+ 4 I 13/2 , which means that a high excitation pump power can be used to obtain strong NIR emission and good signal-to-noise ratio for optical thermometry without the influence of the laser-induced thermal effect. All the results reveal that CaO-Y 2 O 3 : Yb 3+ /Er 3+ is an excellent temperature sensing material with high measurement precision.
K E Y W O R D Sfluorescence intensity ratio, optical thermometry, upconversion, Yb 3+ /Er 3+