We report simultaneous crystal growth and deposition of upconverting
Yb3+/Er3+ doped NaYF4 film (UCF) on conducting and non-conducting substrates
by one-step hydrothermal method. The characteristics such as film
topography, morphology, crystallographic phase and upconverting luminescence
intensity were found to depend both on the chelating agent and nature of the
substrate. The characteristics of the prepared films varied interestingly
when either the chelating agent or the substrate was changed. The
upconversion emission intensities were found to increase with decreasing
film roughness. Further, current investigation demonstrated that the NaYF4
films deposited using EDTA or DTPA chelating agents on ITO substrate and
EGTA chelating agent on PG substrate were more uniform and resulted in
greater upconverted emission intensities. We envision plausible use of
current technology in the development of affordable optical platforms for
several optoelectronic applications.