MgAl₂O₄:Cr³⁺ translucent ceramics with tunable broadband near-infrared luminescence for laser-driven light source detection

Abstract

High-power broadband near-infrared (NIR) light sources have attracted extensive interest toward emerging non-invasive imaging and detection applications. However, exploring highly stable luminescent materials with targeted broadband NIR emission remains a great challenge. Here, MgAl₂O₄:Cr³⁺ translucent ceramics have been designed and fabricated by a spark plasma sintering method, and a giant redshift of the emission band occurs from 686 to 928 nm due to the decreasing local structural symmetry around the isolated Cr³⁺ ions induced by the abundant cation vacancies. As Cr³⁺ content increases, MgAl₂O₄:6%Cr³⁺ ceramic realizes the optimized external quantum efficiency of 73% with broadband NIR emission centered at 890 nm and a full-width at half-maximum of 315 nm under 450 nm excitation. The next-generation laser-driven light source containing NIR ceramic provides an output power exceeding 2 W and a light conversion efficiency of 22% when pumped with a blue laser of 10 W·mm^–2. The proof-of-concept demonstrations in imaging and detection reveal the advantages of high-power and high-efficiency laser-driven broadband NIR light sources and promote future development in the chemical design of NIR emitters.

Keywords

laser-driven light sources / local structural evolution / near-infrared

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