Improving Optical Temperature Sensing Performance of Er3+ Doped Y2O3 Microtubes via Co-doping and Controlling Excitation Power

This work presents a new method to effectively improve the optical temperature behavior of Er 3+ doped Y 2 O 3 microtubes by co-doping of Tm 3+ or Ho 3+ ion and controlling excitation power. The influence of Tm 3+ or Ho 3+ ion on optical temperature behavior of Y 2 O 3 :Er 3+ microtubes is investigated by analyzing the temperature and excitation power dependent emission spectra, thermal quenching ratios, fluorescence intensity ratios, and sensitivity. It is found that the thermal quenching of Y 2 O 3 :Er 3+ microtubes is inhibited by co-doping with Tm 3+ or Ho 3+ ion, moreover the maximum sensitivity value based on the thermal coupled 4 S 3/2 / 2 H 11/2 levels is enhanced greatly and shifts to the high temperature range, while the maximum sensitivity based on 4 F 9/2(1) / 4 F 9/2(2) levels shifts to the low temperature range and greatly increases. The sensitivity values are dependent on the excitation power, and reach two maximum values of 0.0529/K at 24 K and 0.0057/K at 457 K for the Y 2 O 3 :1%Er 3+ , 0.5%Ho 3+ at 121 mW/mm 2 excitation power, which makes optical temperature measurement in wide temperature range possible. The mechanism of changing the sensitivity upon different excitation densities is discussed.