A novel scheme to acquire enhanced up-conversion emissions of Ho3+ and Yb3+ co-doped Sc2O3

A detailed investigation about the effect of Sc2O3: 1 mol%Ho3+/5 mol%Yb3+ co-doped with Ce4+ ions prepared by sol-gel methods was performed systematically. Under the excitation of 980 nm laser diode, both green emission (553 nm, 5F4/5S2→5I8) and red emission (672 nm, 5F5→5I8) were both observed in the emission spectra of the samples, which were found to be two-photon process and sensitized by Yb3+ ions. With the increasing of Ce4+ ions, the up-conversion green emission intensity are increased by 6.52, 8.69, 10.85, 13.92 and 16.66 fold, corresponding to the Ce4+ ions concentrations from 5 mol% to 13 mol%, respectively. The number of photons are necessary to populate the upper emitting state decreases to 2 and the infrared absorption coefficient is reduced, when the Ce4+ ions concentration increase to 13 mol%. Ce4+ ions play an important role in tailoring the local crystal field around Ho3+ ions, lowering the highest phonon cut-off energy of matrix and reducing the infrared absorption coefficient, thus hindering the non-radiative processes, which contribute to the increased emission intensity. The excellent enhancement makes it a promising multifunctional optical luminescence material. •Luminescence mechanism of Sc2O3: Ho3+/Yb3+ co-doped with Ce4+ ions by sol-gel methods were studied.•With the increasing of Ce4+ ions, the luminous intensity of green emission is enhanced by a maximum about 16 times.•The mechanism of enhancement in up-conversion emissions was illustrated, where Ce4+ ions tailor the local crystal field around Ho3+ ions, lower the highest phonon cut-off energy of matrix and reduce the infrared absorption coefficient, thus hindering the non-radiative processes to enhance the up-conversion intensity.