Hydrothermal synthesis and luminescence behavior of lanthanide-doped GdF 3 nanoparticles

The lanthanide-doped GdF ₃ nanoparticles have been produced by a simply hydrothermal synthesis procedure. The excitation and emission spectra of the Eu ³⁺ -doped GdF ₃ nanoparticles showed that the excitation energy of Gd ³⁺ is efficiently transferred to Eu ^{3 +} in the Eu ³⁺-doped GdF ₃ nanoparticles. Due to very low phonon energies of GdF ₃ matrix, the ⁵D ₁ emission of Eu ³⁺ ions in the Eu ³⁺ -doped GdF ₃ nanoparticles can be observed at room temperature when the doping concentration of Eu ³⁺ ions is lower than 15 mol%. The luminescence intensity of the Eu ³⁺-doped GdF ₃ nanoparticles increased with increasing concentration of Eu ³⁺ ions and reached a maximum at approximately 15 mol%. The Er ³⁺-doped GdF ₃ nanoparticles exhibit the typical emission spectra of Er ³⁺ in the near-infrared region. The upconversion emission of the Er ³⁺/Yb ³⁺ codoped GdF ₃ nanoparticles can also be observed. However, the upconversion emission intensity of the Er ³⁺/Yb ³⁺-codoped GdF ₃ nanoparticles was much weaker than that of the Er ³⁺/Yb ³⁺-codoped GdF ₃ bulk crystal. © 2006 IEEE.