Structure, luminescence and temperature sensing in rare earth doped glass ceramics containing NaY(WO) nanocrystals

Novel rare earth doped glass ceramics containing NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals were fabricated for the first time. The appearance of sharp diffraction peaks and well-resolved lattice fringes certifies the precipitation of NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals with high crystallinity. After the crystallization process, significant changes in the photoluminescence emission spectra and fluorescence lifetime of Sm 3+ ions are observed, which are ascribable to the enrichment of Sm 3+ ions in the highly disordered NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals. Under 980 nm excitation, characteristic green and red upconversion emission signals were detected and the enhanced upconversion luminescence of Er 3+ ions in the glass ceramics was attributable to the incorporation into the low energy phonon NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals. Based on the dependence of upconversion intensity on the excitation power, the upconversion mechanism of Er 3+ -Yb 3+ ions was proposed. The temperature-dependent fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of the thermally-coupled 2 H 11/2 and 4 S 3/2 energy levels was determined at a low power density of 0.4125 W cm −2 . The maximum temperature sensitivity is 146 × 10 −4 K −1 at 523 K, which is mainly attributed to the highly disordered structure of NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals and exhibits promising potential for optical temperature sensors. A novel rare earth doped glass ceramic containing NaY(WO 4 ) 2 nanocrystals was fabricated and its temperature sensing properties were investigated.