Tunable photoluminescent properties of rare-earth co-doped (Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3 ceramics by Pr3+ concentration

Lead-free piezoelectric ceramic materials have received extensive attention due to their potential application in new optoelectronic devices. The outstanding advantages of lead-free piezoelectric materials are nontoxicity and environmental-friendliness. Photoluminescence is one of the important properties of ceramics. This property is widely used in printing, testing materials, medical and other technologies. At the same time, materials with up-conversion luminescence can also be used to detect infrared light. Here, we had made Er3+ and Pr3+ co-doped (Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3 (NBT) ceramics. Photoluminescence properties of Er3+ and Pr3+ co-doped NBT were studied. The structure of the doped ceramics was characterized by the X-ray diffraction pattern which shows that the doping had little effect on the ceramic structure. Studies on luminescent spectra show that Pr3+ has an inhibitory effect on the up-conversion luminescence of Er3+, and a certain concentration of Pr3+ promotes the luminescence of Er3+ in the mid-infrared region. Intensity of the up-conversion luminescence was substantially linear with the power of the excitation source. These findings are expected to improve the performance of the NBT-based optoelectronic devices.