Study of luminescent properties of CaNb2O6:Yb, Er, Tm

Abstract

We used solid phase synthesis at 1200 °C to create a luminophore based on CaNb2O6 and activated by ytterbium, erbium, and thulium ions. We present X-ray phase analysis results for the CaNb2O6:Yb, Er, Tm compound. The X-ray diffraction patterns obtained do not contain reflexes belonging to the intermediate phases. We investigated spectral properties of a calcium niobate-based luminophore upon excitation by a 940 nm laser. There are bands in the visible and IR regions to be found in the luminescence spectra. The up-conversion (anti-Stokes emission) luminescence spectrum comprises three bands peaking at 560, 676 and 807 nm. In the IR range, there are three peaks to be detected in the luminescence spectrum at 1010, 1540 and 1812 nm. We established the luminescence variation patterns for compounds based on CaNb2O6:Yb, Er, Tm. We determined the optimum Tm3+ concentration in the system that makes it possible to achieve the highest luminescence efficiency in the 1640-2000 nm range peaking at 1812 nm. We considered an energy transfer mechanism involving Yb3+ and Er3+ as luminescence stabilisers in a thulium ion. Employing erbium as an additional sensitiser allowed the luminescence intensity in the 1812 nm band to be increased by 1.5 time