Near infrared emitting Cr3+ doped Zn3Ga2Ge2O10 long persistent phosphor for night vision surveillance and anti-counterfeit applications

Abstract The Cr3+ doped Zn3Ga2Ge2O10 long persistent phosphor materials were synthesized by solid state reaction method. The crystal structure of the synthesized phosphors are cubic with space group Fd3m. The band gap of the undoped host is about 4.48 eV. The materials show three photoluminescence excitation bands peaked at 260 nm, 412 nm and 580 nm. Due to the broad excitation band, the phosphors can be excited by UV light or visible light or sunlight. The phosphors shows a photoluminescence emission band peaked at 698 nm when excited by UV light. The afterglow emission shows a broad emission band with maximum at 700 nm. The detection of NIR light from the sample was observed by Night Vision Monocular for 24 h after switch off the excitation source. A mechanism is introduced to describe afterglow phenomenon and trap depth was calculated from thermoluminescence curve. As the material emit NIR persistent light, it was used as a secret light source for night vision devices. The developed material was used for tagging, tracking and locating purposes in defence application. The acrylic based paint was prepared to develop long persistent near infrared (NIR) paint, which can be coated on combat vehicle, ship, weapon, helmet, cloth, tent, rock for defence application. The NIR security ink was prepared and demonstrated to prevent counterfeit. Encryption and decryption method of confidential information was presented by using NIR security ink.