TY - JOUR A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Carl, F. A1 - Grauel, Bettina A1 - Pons, Monica A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Haase, M. T1 - LiYF4:Yb/LiYF4 and LiYF4:Yb,Er/LiYF4 core/shell nanocrystals with luminescence decay times similar to YLF laser crystals and the upconversion quantum yield of the Yb,Er doped nanocrystals T2 - Tsinghua University Press N2 - We developed a procedure to prepare luminescent LiYF4:Yb/LiYF4 and LiYF4:Yb,Er/LiYF4 core/shell nanocrystals with a size of approximately 40 nm revealing luminescence decay times of the dopant ions that approach those of high-quality laser crystals of LiYF4:Yb (Yb:YLF) and LiYF4:Yb,Er (Yb,Er:YLF) with identical doping concentrations. As the luminescence decay times of Yb3+ and Er3+ are known to be very sensitive to the presence of quenchers, the long decay times of the core/shell nanocrystals indicate a very low number of defects in the core particles and at the core/shell interfaces. This improvement in the performance was achieved by introducing two important modifications in the commonly used oleic acid based synthesis. First, the shell was prepared via anewly developed method characterized by a very low nucleation rate for particles of pure LiYF4 shell material. Second, anhydrous acetates were used as precursors and additional drying steps were applied to reduce the incorporation of OH− in the crystal lattice, known to quench the emission of Yb3+ ions. Excitation power density (P)-dependent absolute measurements of the upconversion luminescence quantum yield (Φ,UC) of LiYF4:Yb,Er/LiYF4 core/shell particles reveal a maximum value of 1.25% at P of 180 W·cm−2. Although lower than the values reported for NaYF4:18%Yb,2%Er core/shell nanocrystals with comparable sizes, these Φ, UC values are the highest reported so far for LiYF4:18%Yb,2%Er/LiYF4 nanocrystals without additional dopants. Further improvements May nevertheless be possible by optimizing the dopant concentrations in the LiYF4 nanocrystals. PB - Springer KW - Nano KW - Crystal KW - Quantum yield KW - LiYF4 KW - Synthesis KW - Lifetime KW - Fluorescence KW - NIR KW - Photoluminescence KW - Lanthanide KW - Upconversion nanoparticle KW - Nanomaterial PY - 2020 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51539 AN - OPUS4-51539 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-515395 SN - 1998-0124 VL - 14 IS - 3 SP - 797 EP - 806 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany