Luminescene of Rare-earth Doped Quantum Dots and Nanomaterials

Luminescent materials such as phosphors for traditional applications, LEDs and plasma display panels, optical fibre amplifiers, lasers, and selective emitters for spectra conversion purposes have been widely studied. One of the most important parameters that characterize the properties of luminescent centres is the spontaneous emission rate or radiative emission lifetime. It has been shown that this parameter not only depends on the luminescent centres themselves, but also depends strongly on the properties of the surrounding media, especially the refractive index. This is generally referred to as the local-field effect. The appropriate model that should be used to simulate the local-field effect is still unverified and this project will carry out theoretical work and measurements to clarify this. Appropriate syntheses will be performed and the luminescence of doped nanomaterials will be investigated in various media. This research is strongly related to photonic crystals (as a modified surrounding media) and semiconductor quantum dots (embedded in surrounding media as luminescent centres). It not only has importance in fundamental research but also has an immediate practical relevance.