Interaction mechanism for energy transfer from Ce to Tb ions in silica

Energy transfer phenomena can play an important role in the development of luminescent materials. In this study, numerical simulations based on theoretical models of non-radiative energy transfer are compared to experimental results for Ce, Tb co-doped silica. Energy transfer from the donor (Ce) to the acceptor (Tb) resulted in a decrease in the Ce luminescence intensity and lifetime. The decrease in intensity corresponded best with the energy transfer models based on the exchange interaction and the dipole-dipole interaction. The critical transfer distance obtained from the fitting using both these models is around 2 nm. Since the exchange interaction requires a distance shorter than 1 nm to occur, the mechanism most likely to account for the energy transfer is concluded to be the dipole–dipole interaction. This is supported by an analysis of the lifetime data.