Long-lived Photon Upconversion Phosphorescence in RbCaF3:Mn2+,Yb3+ and the Dynamic Color Separation Effect

Enhai Song; Xinxin Han; Yayun Zhou; Yu Wei; Xiao-Fang Jiang; Shi Ye; Bo Zhou; Zhiguo Xia; Qinyuan Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2019.08.013

Long-lived Photon Upconversion Phosphorescence in RbCaF₃:Mn²⁺,Yb³⁺ and the Dynamic Color Separation Effect

iScience. 2019 Sep 27:19:597-606. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2019.08.013. Epub 2019 Aug 9.

Authors

Enhai Song¹, Xinxin Han¹, Yayun Zhou¹, Yu Wei¹, Xiao-Fang Jiang¹, Shi Ye¹, Bo Zhou¹, Zhiguo Xia¹, Qinyuan Zhang²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fiber Materials and Applied Techniques, Institute of Optical Communication Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Fiber Materials and Applied Techniques, Institute of Optical Communication Materials, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China. Electronic address: qyzhang@scut.edu.cn.

Abstract

The development of luminescence materials with long-lived upconversion (UC) phosphorescence and long luminescence rise edge (LRE) is a great challenge to advance the technology of photonics and materials sciences. The lanthanide ions-doped UC materials normally possess limited UC lifetime and short LRE, restricting direct afterglow viewing in visual images by the naked eye. Here, we show that the RbCaF₃:Mn²⁺,Yb³⁺ UC luminescence material generates a long UC lifetime of ∼62 ms peaking at 565 nm and an ultralong LRE of ∼5.2 ms. Density functional theory calculations provide a theoretical understanding of the Mn²⁺-Yb³⁺ aggregation in the high-symmetry RbCaF₃ host lattice that enables the formation of the long-lived UC emission center, superexchange coupled Yb³⁺-Mn²⁺ pair. Through screen printing ink containing RbCaF₃:Mn²⁺,Yb³⁺, the visualized multiple anti-counterfeiting application and information encryption prototype with high-throughput rate of authentication and decryption are demonstrated by the dynamic color separation effect.

Keywords: Computational Method in Materials Science; Materials Design; Optical Materials.