Upconversion emission from erbium doped sol-gel derived ВаТiOз powders and coatings

Abstract

Upconversion is a process where light can be emitted with photon energies higher than those of the light generating the excitation (www.rp-photonics.com/upconversion). Diverse inorganic matrices doped with trivalent lanthanides - erbium and holmium exhibit upconversion, transferring infrared light into visible. Thus the effect attracts attention for detection and visualization of infrared radiation. Recently we reported that sol-gel derived barium titanate possessing refractive index about 1.9 in amorphous state can be used as component of optical interference filter in combination with low refractive index films as silica or magnesium fluoride. At the same time room-temperature luminescence of lanthanides in sol-gel derived barium titanate makes the material and method promising for light conversion. In this work we investigate erbium upconversion emission from sol-gel derived BaTiO3 films and powders.