Nanomaterials (Dec 2018)

Simultaneous Dual-mode Emission and Tunable Multicolor in the Time Domain from Lanthanide-doped Core-shell Microcrystals

  • Dandan Ju,
  • Feng Song,
  • Adnan Khan,
  • Feifei Song,
  • Aihua Zhou,
  • Xiaoli Gao,
  • Huimin Hu,
  • Xu Sang,
  • Victor Zadkov

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano8121023
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 12
p. 1023

Abstract

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The dual-mode emission and multicolor outputs in the time domain from core-shell microcrystals are presented. The core-shell microcrystals, with NaYF4:Yb/Er as the core and NaYF4:Ce/Tb/Eu as the shell, were successfully fabricated by employing the hydrothermal method, which confines the activator ions into a separate region and minimizes the effect of surface quenching. The material is capable of both upconversion and downshifting emission, and their multicolor outputs in response to 980 nm near-infrared (NIR) excitation laser and 252 nm, and 395 nm ultraviolet (UV) excitation light have been investigated. Furthermore, the tunable color emissions by controlling the Tb3+- Eu3+ ratio in shells and the energy transfer of Ce3+→Tb3+→ Eu3+ were discussed in details. In addition, color tuning of core-shell-structured microrods from green to red region in the time domain could be obtained by setting suitable delay time. Due to downshifting multicolor outputs (time-resolved and pump-wavelength-induced downshifting) coupled with the upconversion mode, the core-shell microrods can be potentially applied to displays and high-level security.

Keywords