Ce(3+) /Tb(3+) non-/single-/co-doped K-Lu-F materials: synthesis, optical properties, and energy transfer

Using a hydrothermal method, Ce(3+) /Tb(3+) non-/single-/co-doped K-Lu-F materials have been synthesized. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results suggest that the Ce(3+) and/or Tb(3+) doping had great effects on the crystalline phases of the final samples. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) images indicated that the samples were in hexagonal disk or polyhedron morphologies in addition to some nanoparticles, which also indicated that the doping also had great effects on the sizes and the morphologies of the samples. The energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) patterns illustrated the constituents of different samples. The enhanced emissions of Tb(3+) were observed in the Ce(3+) /Tb(3+) co-doped K-Lu-F materials. The energy transfer (ET) efficiency ηT were calculated based on the fluorescence yield. The ET mechanism from Ce(3+) to Tb(3+) was confirmed to be the dipole-quadrupole interaction inferred from the theoretical analysis and the experimental data. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.