Temperature dependent of Er-doped Yttrium Aluminum Garnet

There is a need for the constant development and improvement of emitting materials to enable the realization of future technologies (eg laser and LED) and as markers for biological applications. The emitting materials in these technologies are known as fluorescent materials which luminescence when excited either optically by the absorption of a photon or electrically by the injection of opposite charge carriers. The focus for this paper will be on optically excited materials that exhibit photoluminescence. Normally, the most important optical property is high luminescence intensity when the material is excited which implies high quantum efficiency including good colour tunability and purity, particularly when the desired application is display technologies. Furthermore, the luminescent lifetime of the material is important with a long lifetime desirable for population inversion to occur (for example of the Er
^3+
4
I
_11/2
energy level) which is a prerequisite for lasing applications, whilst a short lifetime is desirable for fast switching devices such as metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). Based on these desired properties there has been a long-established interest in the development of new rare-earth phosphor materials with the aim of developing an improved understanding of their optical properties to guide for future development.