Intense ultraviolet and blue upconversion emissions in Yb3+–Tm3+ codoped stoichiometric Y7O6F9 powder

Stoichiometric Y7O6F9 powder codoped with Yb3+–Tm3+ was synthesized via co-precipitation and subsequent calcining route. The results of X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy reveal that when the calcining temperature is beyond 800 °C, orthorhombic YF3 nanoparticles can be completely oxidized into orthorhombic Y7O6F9 powder. Under the excitation of a 980 nm laser, Y7O6F9 powder exhibits multicolor UC emission in regions spanning the UV to the NIR. In addition, the upconversion emission intensities of YF3, Y7O6F9 and Y2O3 powders were compared under the same dopant condition (Yb/Tm=5/0.5 mol%). The low phonon energy revealed by Raman spectra helped to understand the high efficient upconversion emission of Y7O6F9 and the main phonon vibration of Y7O6F9 lies at 472 cm−1, which is far lower that of Y2O3 (at 708 cm−1). Our results indicate that orthorhombic rare earth ions doped Y7O6F9 is an efficient matrix for UV and blue UC emission, and has potential applications in color displays, anti-counterfeiting and multicolor fluorescent labels.