Influences of Growth Durations on Characteristics of NaYF4:(Yb,Tm) Upconversion Materials

Abstract

NaYF₄:(Yb,Tm) upconversion materials  were synthesized by the simple hydrothermal method. Growth duration was varied from 4h to 12h under a growth temperature of 150^oC. The structural, optical and surface morphology characteristics of the NaYF₄:(Yb,Tm) UC materials were investigated. The XRD and SEM results illustrated that the NaYF₄:(Yb,Tm) materials were transformed from the multiple phases (hexagonal and cubic) to the single-phase (hexagonal prism) as growth duration being longer than 8h with the average diameter and length of these prisms being about 0.5 µm and 2 µm, respectively. Under 980 nm laser excitation, the NaYF₄:(Yb,Tm) emits at peaks of 450 nm (¹D₂→ ³F₄), 475 nm (¹G₄→³H₆), 647 nm (¹G₄→³F₄) and 697  nm (³F₃→³H₆), with the highest emission belonging to NaYF₄:(Yb,Tm) grown for 8h.

Keywords: NaYF₄:(Yb,Tm), upconversion materials, photoluminescence, growth duration, hydrothermal method.

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