Near vacuum ultraviolet luminescence of Gd3+ and Er3+ ions generated by super saturation upconversion processes

• Published in: Optics express Vol. 17; no. 19; pp. 16366 - 16371
• Main Authors: Chen, Guanying, Liang, Huijuan, Liu, Haichun, Somesfalean, Gabriel, Zhang, Zhiguo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 14.09.2009
• Subjects: Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics; Atom- och molekylfysik och optik; Fysik; Natural Sciences; Naturvetenskap; Physical Sciences
• ISSN: 1094-4087; 1094-4087
• DOI: 10.1364/OE.17.016366

Near vacuum ultraviolet (UV) upconversion (UC) emissions with a spectral resolution of 1 nm, from the (6)G(J), (6)D(J), (6)I(J), (6)P(J) levels of Gd(3+) and the (2)L(17/2), (4)D(7/2), (2)H(2)(9/2), (2)D(5/2), (4)G(7/2), (2)K(13/2), (2)P(3/2) levels of Er(3+), were observed under 974 nm laser excitation. Mechanism analyses illustrate that successive energy transfers (ETs) from Yb(3+) to Er(3+) generate UV UC radiations in Er(3+), while two resonant ETs from Er(3+) to Gd(3+) lead to UV UC radiations in Gd(3+). Power dependence analyses indicate that the expected inefficient four- and five-photon processes have been switched into efficient two-photon processes due to a super saturation UC phenomenon that employs consecutive saturations at the intermediate states.