High pressure luminescence of YVO4:Pr3+

Photoluminescence and time resolved photoluminescence spectra of YVO 4 doped with Pr3+ obtained at high hydrostatic pressure up to 76 kbar applied in a diamond anvil cell are presented. At pressures lower than 60 kbar the steady state emission spectra consist of sharp lines peaking between 600 and 625 nm, related to 1D2→ 3H4 transition in Pr3+and two lines at 475 nm and 575 nm related to an uncontrolled amount of Dy3+ ions. At pressures above 68 kbar the Pr3+ and Dy3+ emission intensity decreases and the corresponding bands are replaced by a broad band peaking at 530 nm attributed to perturbed YVO4 host luminescence. The quenching of the 1D2→3H4 emission with increasing pressure is accompanied by a shortening of its lifetime from 12.5 μs at ambient pressure to less than 3μs at 60 kbar and has been attributed to nonradiative transition to the charge transfer exciton trapped at Pr3+ ion (Pr4++ electron bound by the Coulomb potential).