An intense NIR emission from Ca14Al10Zn6O35:Mn4+,Yb3+via energy transfer for solar spectral converters†
Abstract
To date, most current reports on the development and optimization of solar spectral converters have described the utilization of energy transfer among rare-earth ions. Here, we introduce non-rare-earth ion Mn4+ to transfer energy to Yb3+, which can exhibit strong near-infrared luminescence. It can harvest UV-blue photons and exhibits intense NIR emission of Yb3+ around 1000 nm, perfectly matching the maximum spectral response of Si solar cells. It demonstrates for the first time that efficient energy transfer occurs with a decrease in the excited state lifetime and red photoluminescence (PL) from Mn4+ with increasing Yb3+ concentration. These results demonstrate that the Mn4+ ions can be an efficient and direct sensitizer harvesting UV-blue photons. It could provide new avenues for developing harvesting Si-based solar cells.