Photoluminescence of synthetic titanite-group pigments: A rare quenching effect

Chromium-doped titanite and malayaite samples, which were synthesised to evaluate their performance as ceramic pigments, show remarkable photoluminescence behaviour. Emissions of centres related to traces of trivalent rare-earth elements (REE) are observed exclusively from chromium-free samples. Their Cr-doped analogues (containing the same REEs on the same concentration levels), in contrast, only show broad-band Cr3+ emission whereas all REE emissions are suppressed. This behaviour is assigned to quenching of REE emissions by chromium centres (i.e., REE3+ → Cr3+ energy transfer).