Facilitating cryogenic blue persistent luminescence in a glassy matrix

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Solid State Physics
• Luminescence

Background:

• Rare-earth ion doped glasses offer compositional flexibility and persistent luminescence (PersL).
• Existing PersL materials often show performance degradation at low temperatures, limiting cryogenic applications.
• Developing PersL materials with stable performance across a broad temperature range is crucial for advanced technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize a novel Eu-doped MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 glass with enhanced persistent luminescence properties.
• To investigate the material's performance across a wide temperature range, particularly in cryogenic conditions.
• To elucidate the persistent luminescence mechanism at low temperatures for future material design.

Main Methods:

• Facile microwave-assisted synthesis to create a vitreous matrix with uniformly distributed shallow traps (0.55-0.76 eV).
• Characterization of persistent luminescence properties under X-ray irradiation across temperatures from -125 °C to 200 °C.
• Comparison of shallow trap density with commercial blue-emitting PersL materials.

Main Results:

• The synthesized glass exhibits efficient charge storage and release over a broad temperature range (-125 °C to 200 °C).
• The density of shallow traps in the glass surpasses that of commercial blue PersL materials like Sr2MgSi2O7:Eu2+,Dy3+ and CaAl2O4:Eu2+,Nd3+.
• X-ray irradiation significantly improved blue PersL and storage efficiency within the cryogenic range (-125 °C to 0 °C).

Conclusions:

• The developed blue PersL glass demonstrates exceptional properties for cryogenic environments.
• Its wide operational temperature range and robust energy storage efficiency make it suitable for photonic data storage, radiation detection, and cryogenic safety signage.
• This work provides insights into PersL mechanisms at low temperatures, guiding the design of novel low-temperature PersL materials.