Simultaneous coloration erasure and significant photoluminescence enhancement via vacuum re-annealing in lanthanide-doped transparent ceramics

A simple and efficient route for the coloration erasure and significant photoluminescence enhancement of lanthanide-doped transparent ceramics was novelly developed in this work. As for the illustrative examples, full-band high transparency and efficient luminescence of YZO:Tb and YZO:Pr ceramics were received after air annealing plus vacuum re-annealing processes. The defect clusters [ L n Y 4 + - O 2 − - L n Y 4 + ] and [ L n Y 4 + - e ′ ] were also proposed for the relevant reaction mechanisms involving air annealing and vacuum re-annealing processes. Insight in the vacuum re-annealing strategy might open up a path towards controllably tailoring the optical transmission and transition properties of lanthanide-doped highly transparent ceramics.