Transition metal and rare earth doped Zn1.3Ga1.4Sn0.3O4 persistent phosphors for anti-counterfeiting applications

Abstract

Persistent luminescence (PersL) property offers great potential for anti-counterfeiting applications, by taking advantage of the possibility of making observations under background-free conditions. However, some challenges still persist, mainly due to the low security when working in the visible range. Thus, to overcome those difficulties, materials with near-infrared (NIR) emissions are highly required. In this work, we propose the use of Zn1.3Ga1.4Sn0.3O4 nanoparticles (ZGSO NPs, with size around 140 nm) doped with Cr3+,Ni2+,Er3+ which have a strong PersL at 700 nm (NIR-I) and at 1300 nm (NIR-II) by optimising the doping ratio of Ni2+ and Er3+ ions. Such ZGSO PersL NPs have been evaluated for multilevel anti-counterfeiting technology in dual-windows.