Single-ion fluorescence spectroscopy of a Y2SiO5:Pr3+ nanocluster

Confocal fluorescence microscopy has been used to study the fluorescence spectrum and fluorescence decay of a single Pr3+ ion incorporated into a Y2SiO5 nanocluster prepared by sol-gel method. Two emission spectra of Y2SiO5:Pr3+ nanoclusters characterized by different size (20 and 5 nm) has been observed. Depending on the annealing time, persistent transition between two emission spectra was not established. It has been found that the cluster exhibits essential distinctions from the corresponding bulk crystal regarding the splitting of Pr3+ terms and a suppression of phonon relaxation between crystal-field components of the 1D2 term