Temperature sensing of Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ garnet phosphors with tunable sensitivity

In this study, a novel temperature-sensitive material, Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ phosphor, was successfully synthesized by a solid-state reaction method. Under 376 nm light excitation, the as-prepared phosphor presents both blue emissions of Bi3+ and orange red emissions of Sm3+ due to energy transfer from Bi3+ to Sm3+. Owing to the significant difference in thermal quenching properties and the distinguishable emission between Bi3+ and Sm3+ ions, the temperature sensing performance of the prepared phosphor was evaluated by measuring the fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) of Sm(3+)versus Bi3+. More importantly, for the first time, it was found that the absolute and relative sensitivities of Sr3Y2Ge3O12:Bi3+,Sm3+ could be tuned by changing the concentration of activators to determine the optimal temperature measurement conditions, which opened up the possibility of improving the performance of fluorescence temperature sensing materials.