Inter- and intraconfigurational optical transitions of the Pr3+ ion for application in lighting and scintillator technologies

In this paper, a review of the application of the Pr3+ inter- and intraconfigurational optical transitions in lighting and scintillator technologies is presented. The possibility of generating more than one visible photon for each incident ultraviolet photon can be realized with the Pr3+ intraconfigurational emission emanating from the Pr3+1S0 state. The development of such materials can significantly improve the overall energy conversion of fluorescent lamps. Scintillators based on the intraconfigurational optical transitions emanating from the Pr3+3P0 state has lead to the development and commercialization of the Gd2O2S:Pr3+ scintillator for application in computed tomography (CT). The development of fast scintillators for positron emission tomography (PET) and security applications can be realized with the efficient Pr3+ interconfigurational transitions (4f15d1→4f2) in a solid.