Investigation of energy transfer and concentration quenching of Dy3+ luminescence in Gd(BO2)3 by means of fluorescence dynamics

•Lifetime of Gd decreases with Dy concentration, confirming energy transfer.•Rise time confirms the feeding of the Dy excited state by energy transfer.•Concentration quenching of Dy emission is ascribed to resonant cross-relaxation.•Interaction between Dy ions is dipole-dipole type through fitting with I-H model.

In this paper, the photoluminescence (PL) properties of Dy3+ activated Gd(BO2)3 phosphors are presented by means of fluorescence dynamics excited by pulsed laser light (λ = 266 nm). Energy transfer from Gd3+ to Dy3+ and concentration quenching of the Dy3+ luminescence are studied. From the PL spectra and decay curves the energy transfer from Gd3+ to Dy3+ is confirmed. The decay curves of Dy3+4F9/2 → 6H13/2 transition exhibiting build-up and decay process confirm the energy transfer between Gd3+ to Dy3+. The rise time becomes shorter as the Dy3+ concentration increases. The theoretical luminescence decay curves of (Gd1−xDyx) (BO2)3 samples agree well with the experimental observations. The concentration quenching of the Dy3+ ion emission can be ascribed to resonant cross-relaxation. The interaction between the Dy3+ ions is probably of the electric dipole–dipole type through fitting the data with Inokuti–Hirayama (I–H) model. The energy transfer parameters and critical distance for the transfer processes are given.