Modulation of thermometric performance of single-band-ratiometric luminescent thermometers based on luminescence of Nd(3+) activated tetrafluorides by size modification

Due to a number of its advantages, luminescence thermometry has been a strongly developed strand of temperature metrology over a period of time. Although there are several different types of luminescent thermometers, recently attention has been focused on a new single-band ratiometric approach, which is based on the excited state absorption phenomenon. Nevertheless, since this process is nontrivial and has not been studied extensively in the context of thermometry to date, a number of studies are necessary to enable the intentional development of highly sensitive thermometers based on this method. One of the important aspects is to investigate the influence of material size and the associated occurrence of surface effects, which is considered in this work. In addition, the research in this paper has been extended to explore the aspect of host material composition. Accordingly, nanocrystals and microcrystals of β-NaYF(4):2%Nd(3+), β-NaGdF(4):2%Nd(3+), and LiGdF(4):2%Nd(3+) were investigated in this work. The influence of surface effects on thermometric parameters was proved, with special emphasis on the useful temperature range. Thus, by increasing the particle size, it was possible to intentionally extend the useful range by even more than 100 K.