TY - JOUR A1 - Hyppänen, I. A1 - Perälä, N. A1 - Arppe, Riika A1 - Schäferling, Michael A1 - Soukka, T. T1 - Environmental and excitation power effects on the ratiometric upconversion luminescence based temperature sensing using nanocrystalline NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ JF - ChemPhysChem N2 - The luminescence intensity ratio (LIR) of the green emissions of the near-infrared excited NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ nanocrystals is a promising method for temperature sensing. Here, the influence of excitation power density, excitation pulse length, excitation wavelength, silica shell, and solvent on the LIR and its temperature response is reported. The primary objective is to study the LIR mechanism and the impact of measurement and environmental parameters on the calibration and precision of the LIR. The LIR value is demonstrated to be unaffected by the excitation intensity in the studied range. This result is essential, considering the application feasibility of the LIR method as temperature sensor, where the effective excitation power density depends on the sample matrix and the distance excitation light travels in the sample. The pulsed excitation, however, results in an increase in the LIR value upon short pulse width. Silanization of bare nanocrystals has no effect on the LIR values, but the local warming of H2O samples under laser exposure results in slightly increased LIR values compared to other solvents; D2O, oleic acid, and dimethyl sulfoxide. The thermal quenching of luminescence lifetimes of Er3+ emission is proved to be too weak for sensing applications. KW - Photon upconversion KW - Temperature sensing KW - Luminescence intensity ratio KW - Excitation intensity PY - 2017 UR - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cphc.201601355/epdf DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/cphc.201601355 SN - 1439-4235 SN - 1439-7641 VL - 18 IS - 6 SP - 692 EP - 701 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-39899 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Arppe, Riika A1 - Hyppänen, I. A1 - Perälä, N. A1 - Peltomaa, R. A1 - Kaiser, Martin A1 - Würth, Christian A1 - Christ, S. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Schäferling, Michael A1 - Soukka, T. T1 - Quenching of the upconversion luminescence of NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ and NaYF4:Yb3+,Tm3+ nanophosphors by water: the role of the sensitizer Yb3+ in non-radiative relaxation JF - Nanoscale N2 - We have studied the mechanisms of water-based quenching of the upconversion photoluminescence of upconverting nanophosphors (UCNPs) via luminescence decay measurements for a better understanding of the non-radiative deactivation pathways responsible for the relatively low upconversion luminescence efficiency in aqueous solutions. This included both upconversion luminescence measurements and the direct excitation of emissive energy states of Er3+ and Yb3+ dopants in NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ UCNPs by measuring the decays at 550 and 655 nm upon 380 nm excitation and at 980 nm upon 930 nm excitation, respectively. The luminescence intensities and decays were measured from both bare and silanized NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ and NaYF4:Yb3+,Tm3+ UCNPs in H2O and D2O. The measurements revealed up to 99.9% quenching of the upconversion photoluminescence intensity of both Er3+ and Tm3+ doped bare nanophosphors by water. Instead of the multiphonon relaxation of excited energy levels of the activators, the main mechanism of quenching was found to be the multiphonon deactivation of the Yb3+ sensitizer ion caused by OH-vibrations on the surface of the nanophosphor. Due to the nonlinear nature of upconversion, the quenching of Yb3+ has a higher order effect on the upconversion emission intensity with the efficient Yb–Yb energy migration in the ~35 nm nanocrystals making the whole nanophosphor volume susceptible to surface quenching effects. The study underlines the need of efficient surface passivation for the use of UCNPs as labels in bioanalytical applications performed in aqueous solutions. PY - 2015 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/c5nr02100f SN - 2040-3364 SN - 2040-3372 VL - 7 IS - 27 SP - 11746 EP - 11757 PB - RSC Publ. CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-33815 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -