Characterization of Rare-Earth Fluoride Anti-Stokes Phosphors by Scanning arid Transmission Electron Microscopy

There has been considerable interest over the past several years in materials capable of converting infrared radiation to visible light by means of sequential excitation in two or more steps. Several rare-earth trifluorides (LaF3, YF3, GdF3, and LuF3) containing a small amount of other trivalent rare-earth ions (Yb3+ and Er3+, or Ho3+, or Tm3+) have been found to exhibit such phenomenon. The methods of preparation of these rare-earth fluorides in the crystalline solid form generally involve a co-precipitation process and a subsequent solid state reaction at elevated temperatures. This investigation was undertaken to examine the morphological features of both the precipitated and the thermally treated fluoride powders by both transmission and scanning electron microscopy.Rare-earth oxides of stoichiometric composition were dissolved in nitric acid and the mixed rare-earth fluoride was then coprecipitated out as fine granules by the addition of excess hydrofluoric acid. The precipitated rare-earth fluorides were washed with water, separated from the aqueous solution, and oven-dried.