Temperature Effects on Luminescence of YNbO4:Er3+/Tm3+/Yb3+ White-Light Upconversion Phosphor and Sensing Behavior Based on Thermally and Non-Thermally Coupled Levels

Tri-doped phosphor YNbO4:Er3+/Tm3+/Yb3+ was prepared by solid-state reaction method. The XRD and SEM results reveal that the product is a monoclinic phase of YNbO4 with high crystallinity and the particles presenting grains with well-defined boundaries with average size is about 1–5 μm. The temperature-dependent luminescence is investigated with 980 nm laser excitation, whereas temperature sensing behaviour was studied in the range of 300–500 K based on Stark sublevels 1G4(a)/1G4(b) (Tm3+), thermal coupling levels 2H11/2/4S3/2 (Er3+) and non-thermal coupling levels 4F9/2 → 4I15/2 (Er3+) /3F2 → 3H6 (Tm3+), 2H11/2 → 4I15/2 (Er3+) / 4F9/2 → 4I15/2 (Tm3+) and 4S3/2 → 4I15/2 (Er3+) /3F2 → 3H6 (Tm3+), utilizing fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) technique. It is worth highlighting that 1G4(a)/1G4(b) ratio as is not much employed in thermometry. Regarding, NTCL 3F2/1G4(b) pair exhibited the highest absolute sensitivity (SA) is about 110.2 × 10− 3 K− 1 at 500 K, whereas NTCL 3F2/4F9/2 pair presented the highest relative sensitivity (SR) is 2.1