Photometric features and intense blue light emanation of Nd3+ doped SrTiO3 based nanophosphor for multi-functional applications

Abstract

Herein, a series of SrTiO3:Nd3+ (1–11 mol %) nanophosphors has been prepared via a conventional hydrothermal route. Their anti-counterfeiting and latent fingerprint visualization applications are reported, which show important level-III features and unclonable tags. The cubic structure was confirmed by powdered X-ray diffraction studies with space group Pm-3m (No-221). The photoluminescence (PL) characterization results evinced that the nanophosphor emits intense blue light. The optimized nanophosphors were used to visualize latent fingerprints through recognizing level I-III ridges by a reduced background hindrance and can be utilized for visualizing latent fingerprints on difficult substrate surfaces with superior sensitivity, high contrast and selectivity. Further, a furthermost possible stochastic process to make unclonable anti-counterfeiting tags using optimized nanophosphor was designed to reduce counterfeit products. Therefore, it is believed that this optimized nanophosphor for visualization of latent fingerprints as well as unclonable anti-counterfeiting tags will find widespread use in forensic investigations and product safety applications.

Keywords

• Hydrothermal synthesis
• Photoluminescence
• Pyramidal architectures
• Latent fingerprints
• Anti-counterfeiting tags