Microstructure and Photoluminescence of ZrTiO4:Eu3+ Phosphors: Host-Sensitized Energy Transfer and Optical Thermometry

Orthorhombic ZrTiO4 is an attractive dielectric material; its optical properties are, however, less known. In this paper, we reported on the microstructure and luminescence studies of pristine ZrTiO4 and Eu3+-doped ZrTiO4 phosphors. The results indicated that two types of TiO6 octahedra, the isolated/ localized and coupled/delocalized, coexisted in host matrix. Eu3+ doping could induce oxygen vacancy defect states located below the bottom of the conduction band. Pristine ZrTiO4 showed bright yellow luminescence via STEs recombination at defects sites at low temperatures, but significant thermal quenching occurred due to STEs migration to quenching centers at elevated temperatures. Effective host sensitized energy transfer to Eu3+ was observed in ZrTiO4:Eu3+ phosphors and yielded the red characteristic emissions of Eu3+. Anomalous STEs luminescence enhancement and spectral blue-shift in the excitation spectra with higher Eu3 + concentration appeared and were explained by considering three factors: competitive absorption between electron transitions from the top of the valence band to the defect states and host conduction band, Eu3+ doping driving the production of more isolated TiO6 octahedra, and energy back-transfer from Eu3+ activators to other titanate groups. On the basis of the dual-emitting combination strategy involving host STEs and Eu3+ luminescence, ZrTiO4:Eu3+ phosphors were demonstrated to be ratiometric self-referencing optical thermometric materials, with a working range of 153–313 K and a maxima of relative sensitivity to ~1.1% K−1 at 243 K.