Tm2+ Activated SrB4O7 Bifunctional Sensor of Temperature and Pressure-Highly Sensitive, Multi-Parameter Luminescence Thermometry and Manometry

Noninvasive sensing of temperature and pressure offers new and exciting opportunities to investigate and monitor the variation of physicochemical and spectroscopic properties of materials under extreme conditions. In this work, Tm2+-doped SrB4O7 phosphor material-a novel, contactless bifunctional, and multimodal optical sensor for pressure and temperature is reported. A series of SrB4O7: xTm(2+) samples are synthesized via a high-temperature solid-state method in air. The impact of high pressure (up to approximate to 13 GPa) and temperature (from 10 to 400 K) on spectroscopic properties of SrB4O7:Tm2+ is investigated. The emission band of Tm2+ demonstrates a significant spectral shift and a band broadening as a function of both pressure and temperature. Such a result is a consequence of a significant change of vibronic components of the Tm2+ 4f(12)5d <-> 4f(13) zero-phonon line. The emission bandwidth and its spectral position exhibit excellent sensitivities to pressure, that is, approximate to 23.17 and approximate to-11.85 cm(-1) GPa(-1), respectively. Furthermore, for the first time, it is shown that temperature sensing can be realized via four different pathways in a single material: i) bandwidth, ii) band shift, iii) band intensity ratio, and iv) luminescence lifetime, with maximal sensitivities of approximate to 3.85 cm(-1) K-1, 1.44 cm(-1) K-1, 1.48% K-1 and 4.16% K-1, respectively.

Automated summary

Noninvasive sensing of temperature and pressure offers new opportunities to investigate and monitor materials under extreme conditions. The Tm2+-doped SrB4O7 material shows significant spectral shifts and sensitivity to pressure and temperature, making it a promising optical sensor for bifunctional sensing.