Photo-stimulated luminescence in SrAl2O4: Eu2+,Dy3+ single crystal fibers

In order to understand the phosphorescence dynamics, a photo-pulse stimulation technique was used to release the stored photo-energy from trapped Eu2+ ions in SrAl2O4:Eu,Dy single crystal fibers at 80 K. It was found that the lifetime of the photo-stimulated luminescence from trapped Eu2+ ions is 108 ns, 3 times faster than that of the normal luminescence. The fast decay can be caused by retrapping or lattice relaxation. Thermoluminescence results indicate that the retrapping process is negligible. Lattice relaxation might be the physical reason to accelerate the decay process through multiple phonon processes. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.