Modulation of photoluminescence properties by poling and quenching strategy in rare earth ions doped Na_1/2Bi_1/2TiO₃-based ceramics

With the continuous development of the society, optical ceramics are more and more widely used in daily life. In this work, the photochromic (PC) and photoluminescence (PL) properties of Na_1/2Bi_1/2TiO₃ (NBT)-based ceramics doped with different rare-earth elements (Er, Eu, and Ho) are investigated. It is found that NBT-Er\Eu and NBT-Er\Ho ceramics have good up-conversion PL properties under 980 nm laser excitation. After poling and quenching treatments, the PL intensity of NBT-Er\Eu ceramics increases by 1.5 and 11.7 times, respectively, and the NBT-Er\Ho ceramics increases by 5.1 and 3.6 times, respectively. Besides, the rare-earth ions doped NBT-based ceramics exhibit fast PC response and self-bleaching behavior. In addition, multicolor luminescence behavior (from bright green to orange-yellow) is obtained in NBT-Er\Eu ceramics, suggesting the potential application of this material in the field of optical information storage and optical anti-counterfeiting. Therefore, this work not only provides a new PC material exhibiting fast PC response and self-bleaching behavior, but also develops new universal strategies to modulate PL properties without changing the composition.