ABSTRACT
The development of the lighting industry and some types of electronic display systems may be greatly aided by luminescent materials with quantum efficiency (QE) values higher than unity. A recent demonstration of an effective visible quantum cutting (QC) in ultraviolet (UV) provided stimulation for the phosphor industry. Some potentially significant luminous materials and gadgets are already being developed, thanks to the fascinating and intriguing tendencies brought on by visible quantum cutting. The prospect of a greater QE is dependent on the QC principle in phosphors, which has the potential to produce two or more low-energy photons for each high-energy photon that is incident on the phosphor and absorbed. The study of single ions doped in fluorides that can emit many ions at once, such as Pr3+, Tm3+, Er3+, and Gd3+, has begun. The emphasis has now been placed on the pairing of two ions, where the donor ion’s energy could be downconverted and incrementally transmitted to two acceptor ions. If the conversion of one UV-visible photon into two near-infrared (NIR) photons is successful and the energy loss from thermalization of electron-hole pairs is kept to a minimum, QC materials may also be employed in solar cells. This article summarizes the recent developments in the following areas: (a) materials and advancements in the field of UV-visible QC phosphors and the mechanism involved, including QC in single rare-earth (RE) ion activated fluorides- and oxides-based phosphors, energy transfer and downconversion, QC in dual/ternary ions activated phosphors; and (b) NIR QC in RE3+-Yb3+ (RE = Tb, Tm, Ho). Applications, difficulties, and potential advancements of the visible- and NIR-QC phosphors have also been discussed.
