Chromatic tuning of upconversion emission upon dual infrared wavelength co-excitation in Er3+ doped Ba3Lu4O9 phosphor

Emission color change of the upconversion luminescence materials is often required for applications in optical anti-counterfeiting, laser lighting, and 3D displays. In this work, we developed a new route for chromatic tuning of upconversion emission upon two wavelength co-excitation by changing excitation power density. The proposed route was used for Er³⁺ single-doped Ba₃Lu₄O₉ phosphor which was derived from a traditional solid-state reaction. The crystal structure of the obtained Ba₃Lu₄O₉:Er³⁺ phosphor was characterized by X-ray diffraction and Rietveld refinement modeling. Under individual excitation of 980 or 1550 nm, it was found that the luminescence intensity ratio of red to green changes slightly with respectively increasing excitation power density (working current of the laser) of 980 or 1550 nm laser. However, upon both 980 and 1550 nm co-excitation at the same time and by adjusting the excitation power density of one laser amongst the two lasers, the luminescence intensity ratio of red to green changes greatly with increasing excitation power density. The change of luminescence intensity ratio of red to green implies the upconversion emission color tuning. The mechanism for the color tuning was discovered. It was found that with changing excitation power density the ratio of red to green changed greatly when the phosphor was irradiated by 980 and 1550 together, but the ratio of red to green changed slightly when the phosphor was irradiated individually by 980 or 1550. It is proved that it is feasible to turn color by the method of two infrared wavelengths excitation.