Understanding differences in Er3+–Yb3+ codoped glass and glass ceramic based on upconversion luminescence for optical thermometry

Abstract

Optical thermometry has attracted growing consideration due to its outstanding performance. In this research, precursor glass with compositions of 50SiO₂–20Al₂O₃–30CaF₂–0.5ErF₃–1YbF₃ and the corresponding CaF₂ glass ceramic were prepared for optical temperature sensing comparison. A large enhancement in upconversion luminescence originated from thermally coupled energy levels (²H_11/2 and ⁴S_3/2) and ⁴F_9/2 was confirmed in the transparent glass ceramic (GC). Importantly, the temperature-dependent upconversion fluorescence intensity ratios of glass and GC were investigated from 303 K to 573 K under a 980 nm laser with constant pumping power. It was found that GC shows weaker optical thermometry ability than the precursor glass in terms of temperature sensitivity, the maximum relative sensitivity of GC reached to 10.6 × 10⁻³ K⁻¹ at 303 K while that of the glass is 11.15 × 10⁻³ K⁻¹ at 303 K, the thermally coupled energy gap reduced about 34.2 cm⁻¹ after crystallization, we attribute this change to the crystal field effect. Furthermore, the FIR value variation of glass shows weaker pumping power dependence than GC in terms of thermal effect induced by laser. The temperature-cycle measurements suggest that both glass and GC exhibit favorable thermal stability. Consequently, our results may contribute to enriching our understanding of the optical temperature sensing properties of glass and glass ceramic in other systems and provide a comprehensive perspective to design practical optical thermometry materials.