A novel Ce3+/Mn2+/Eu3+ tri-doped GdF3 nanocrystals for optical temperature sensor and anti-counterfeiting

Abstract Non-contact optical thermometry based on fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) exhibits potential application in strong electromagnetic and corrosive environment. However, most of the reported systems exhibit high temperature sensitivity only at a narrow temperature range, which limit their practical application. In this work, a novel Ce 3+ /Mn 2+ /Eu 3+ tri-doped GdF 3 nano-thermometry based on different thermal behaviours between Eu 3+ and Mn 2+ ions is constructed. The calculated relative sensitivity in the whole measured temperature range are beyond 1.08% K −1 and the maximum S a is about 0.078 K −1 for the 50Ce/8Mn/2Eu: GdF 3 NCs, which are superior to several other inorganic nano-thermometry at the same temperature. In addition, these colorimetric temperature sensing materials exhibit potential application in anti-counterfeiting field as well.