Multifunctional β-NaGdF4: Ln3+ (Ln=Yb/Er/Eu) phosphors synthesized by l-arginine assisted hydrothermal method and their multicolor tunable luminescence

Rare earth ions doped luminescence nanomaterials have broad applications ranging from television tubes to biological imaging. A series of Yb³⁺/Er³⁺/Eu³⁺ ions doped NaGdF₄ dual-mode (up- and down-conversion) luminescence phosphors have been prepared by l-arginine assisted-hydrothermal method. The results show that the synthesized samples are all pure β-NaGdF₄ with one dimensional micron structure. Changing the excitation wavelengths and Eu³⁺ ion concentrations, multiple (yellowish green, yellow, orange) emissions are obtained. Moreover, the energy transfer, luminescence mechanism and paramagnetic properties of the samples have been discussed in this paper.