Therefore, the EDC NPs that have the strongest fluorescence, when annealed at 700°C, contain the highest concentration of Ce3+ states [10]. The peak amplitude of the down-conversion emission decreases with increasing anneal temperature,

indicating that the higher temperature annealing reduce the concentration of oxygen vacancies and Ce3+ ionization states. This is most clearly CBL-0137 ic50 observed in samples annealed at 900°C. Figure 4 Spectra of down-converted and up-converted P5091 emissions (a,b) and diagram of up-conversion energy mechanisms (c). (a) When excited at 430 nm and (b) when excited at 780 nm measured on samples of EDC NPs annealed at 700°C, 800°C, and 900°C. Dotted lines in (c) are non-radiative transitions. When the EDC NPs are excited by near-IR (λ = 780 nm) photons, visible emission is observed at two regions in the visible wavelength range; the primary emission is between 520 to 560 nm and

a much smaller emission is found at 660 to 680 nm, as shown in Figure 4b. We hypothesize that erbium ions form stable complexes with oxygen in the ceria host during the anneal and the crystalline structure of the nanoparticle improves, both selleckchem of which increase the efficiency of Er+3 ions to act as optically active centers for up-conversion [19]. The results include a slight improvement of the intensity of the up-conversion emission with increasing Tobramycin annealing temperature. A portion of the Dieke diagram is illustrated in Figure 4c, which shows that excited state absorption (ESA) is possible. First, the erbium ion is excited from 4I15/2 level to 4I9/2[13]. From the 4I9/2 state, the excited Er+3 ion non-radiatively relaxes to the 4I11/2 state. If a second 780-nm photon interacts with the

excited Er+3 ion, an ESA process occurs, which excites the erbium ion to the level of 4 F7/2. After a series of non-radiative relaxations to lower levels such as 2H11/2, 4S3/2, and 4 F9/2, radiative relaxation to the 4I15/2 state occurs and visible emission results; green photons are emitted during the transitions from 2H11/2 and 4S3/2 to 4I15/2 while red photons are emitted during the 4 F9/2 to 4I15/2 transition. Conclusions In conclusion, this paper presents a study on a new synthesized nanomaterial, EDC NPs, that emit photons in the visible wavelength range when illuminated by two different excitation sources: near-UV light (430 nm) and near-IR (780 nm) light. When the excitation source is near-UV light, a down-conversion process results in a broad emission peak centred at 520 nm. Up-conversion of the near-IR light is responsible for the narrower bands of green and red emission. Anneals at temperatures of 700°C and 800°C in a hydrogen-nitrogen atmosphere reduces the cerium ions from the Ce4+ to Ce3+ state.