Laser induced thermochromism and reversible upconversion emission modulation of a novel WO3:Yb3+,Er3+ ceramic: dual-modal fingerprint acquisition application

•Dual-modal fingerprint identification was realized by WO3:Yb3+,Er3+ ceramic.•Reversible writing and erasing of fingerprint pattern can be obtained.•The fingerprint patterns exhibited high stability and long term preservation.•The chromism mechanism of WO3 ceramic was from the laser induced heat effect. The quick and accurate identity recognition can be obtained by the acquisition of fingerprints in the financial, telecommunication, transportation, education and medical fields. However, conventional fingerprint acquisition technologies have many problems such as the high background interference, low detection sensitivity and complicated operation. In this work, the reversible modulation of laser induced thermochromism and upconversion luminescence of a novel WO3:Yb3+,Er3+ ceramic was achieved even after several cycles, exhibiting excellent repeatability. For the first time, we realized the dual-modal fingerprint acquisition by means of the laser induced thermochromism and upconversion luminescence of WO3:Yb3+,Er3+ ceramic. Particularly, this method shows ultrahigh stability, preserving the fingerprint patterns as long as one year. The results demonstrated that our technology is nondestructive, repeatable, highly effective and stable, paving the way for the development of the acquisition and storage of fingerprints.