A Study of the Luminescence of Organic-Sensitised Europium Ions in Lanthanum Trifluoride Nanocrystals Towards Optical Amplification

Abstract

The luminescence of europium ions in lanthanum trifluoride nanocrystals are measured, with and without thenoyltrifluroacetate (TTA) sensitisers. It is found that the luminescence from the Eu³⁺ is constant in intensity and frequency without TTA; with the TTA the intensity is seen to degrade significantly with exposure to pump light. A number of possibilities for this are explored.

It was intended to include the nanocrystals in polymer films to measure the gain possible; this is explored theoretically. The losses that might be expected using scattering theory are calculated, and using this the gain requirements for nett optical transparency are calculated.