Magnetic field dependent photoluminescence spectra Er3+:GdVO4 crystal at 80 K.
(Opt. Mater. Express 6, 3446-3454 (2016))
Background
Rare earth dopants, such as Er3+, Eu3+ and Ho3+ doped materials, have attracted extra attentions since they have rich emission lines, strong luminescence intensity and narrow excitation energy bands in the visible and near-infrared wavelength region. Er3+ doped luminescence materials are of particular interests because they have excellent luminescent properties in both visible and middle infrared wavelength regions, which have wide applications in lasers, displays, biosensors and telecommunications. Recently, people observed two orders of PL enhancement inEr3+:YVO4 under 7.7T, but how to lower down the enhancing magnetic field is challenging. Here, we investigated and discussed the factors that affect the PL enhancement of rare-earth luminescence materials throughcomparing thevisible and mid-IR PLenhancement behaviors of Er3+:GdVO4 crystal.
What we discover?
The magnetic field- and temperature- dependent photoluminescence were investigated under pulsed magnetic field, and the results show that the photoluminescence in tensities of both green and middle infrared emissions could be increased 25 times under 4T, whose working magnetic field is much smaller than that reported in other materials. Comparison between the enhancement factors of the twophotoluminescenceemission bands demonstrate that both excitation and emission energy transitions have made contributions to thephotoluminescenceenhancement.
Why is this important?
The results not only reveals the originations of the magnetic induced PL enhancement in Er3+:GdVO4 crystal, but also drag people closer to the utilization of magnetic induced PL modulations under moderate low magnetic field.
Why did they need WHMFC?
The wavelengths of the narrow-line lasers, e. g. ions lasers and semiconductor lasers, are hardly to be tuned to excite the PL resonantly. High magnetic field provides us an efficient way to continuously tune the energy levels of materials instead photon energy of the lasers to meet the energy-matching requirement of the excitations. By using this method, the fine energy structures of some rare-earth luminescent materials could be figured out and some novel optical phenomena, such as giant PL enhancement and great PL suppressions, of materials could be observed.
Who did the research?
Junpei Zhang1, Zhiqiang Zhong1, Xia Wang2, Zongwei Ma1,Shaoliang Wang1, Yibo Han1, and Junbo Han1
1Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
2Wenhua College, Wuhan 430074, China.
