Strontium Aluminate Persistent Luminescent Single Crystals: Linear Scaling of Emission Intensity with Size Is Affected by Reabsorption

David Van der Heggen; Jonas J Joos; Daniel Rytz; Bruno Viana; Philippe F Smet

doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02638

Strontium Aluminate Persistent Luminescent Single Crystals: Linear Scaling of Emission Intensity with Size Is Affected by Reabsorption

J Phys Chem Lett. 2023 Nov 16;14(45):10151-10157. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02638. Epub 2023 Nov 4.

Authors

David Van der Heggen¹, Jonas J Joos¹, Daniel Rytz², Bruno Viana³, Philippe F Smet¹

Affiliations

¹ LumiLab, Department of Solid State Sciences, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281/S1, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
² BREVALOR Sàrl, Impasse des Frênes 1, CH-1669 Les Sciernes, Switzerland.
³ PSL Research University, Chimie ParisTech, Chemistry Research Institute of Paris (IRCP), French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), 75005 Paris, France.

PMID: 37924325
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02638

Abstract

The green-emitting SrAl₂O₄:Eu,Dy phosphor is the most widely used and well-studied persistent luminescent phosphor available today. Recent efforts to boost its performance in terms of luminescence intensity and duration are challenged by complex loss mechanisms, including the optically stimulated release of previously trapped charges by excitation light. Here, we present minimally scattering SrAl₂O₄:Eu,Dy single crystals, which, as opposed to powder phosphors, allow to profit from a so-called volume effect, resulting in a significantly increased emission intensity. Additionally, they allow for the identification of the reabsorption of the afterglow emission by trapped charges as an important loss mechanism, leading to a nonlinear scaling of the emission intensity with the crystal size. If circumvented, the emission intensity could be further increased, in persistent luminescent powders, ceramics, and single crystals.