Tunable upconversion white photoemission in Yb3+/Mn2+/Tm3+ tri-doped transparent glass ceramics

Abstract The design of optical materials with efficient white-light emission performance is still of great interest in the fields of visible lighting and communication. In this paper, Yb3+/Mn2+/Tm3+ tri-doped upconversion (UC) white-emitting transparent glass ceramics have been successfully fabricated by a melt-quenching technique. The structure and luminescent properties of the resultant samples were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), optical transmission spectra, and photoemission spectra. Owing to the co-precipitation of dual-phase γ-Ga2O3/β-YF3 nanocrystals in the matrix, the Yb3+/Mn2+ co-doped glass ceramics exhibited tunable dual-to single-broadband UC emission with the content of Mn2+ varying from 0.75 to 4 mol%. After Tm3+ ions were introduced into the co-doped GC sample, a UC white-light luminescence was realized by combining the yellowish emission (510–630 nm) of Yb3+-Mn2+ pair and blue emission (476 nm) of Tm3+. Importantly, the white-emitting glass ceramic sample showed excellent thermal recoverability during a heating and cooling cycle within the temperature range of 303–573 K. Our results indicated the designed Yb3+/Mn2+/Tm3+ tri-doped glass ceramics may be a promising candidate for the white-light lasers source.