The real role of active-shell in enhancing the luminescence of lanthanides doped nanomaterials

Although it is widely recognized that doping sensitizers in the shell can improve significantly the luminescence of lanthanides doped nanocrystals, lack of an unambiguous picture of relevant luminescence enhancement mechanism seriously hinders the optimization of this approach. In this work, the complete processes of excitation energy migration, from photon absorption to emission, was dissected to unravel the role of sensitizers doped in shell in every individual stage. We revealed that the essence of doping sensitizers in the shell is just to increase the absorption efficiency whereas the quantum yield is lessened simultaneously. The optimal sensitizer doping concentration is also fixed to achieve the best luminescence performance. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC