Enhanced nonradiative relaxation and photoluminescence quenching in random, doped nanocrystalline powders

Nonradiative relaxation and photoluminescence quenching in nanocrystalline powders doped with rare-earth elements are of interest in optical bistability, random laser, and other optoelectronic applications. Here, the luminescence quenching of a one-dimensional random medium made of multilayer nanoparticles sY2O3d doped with rare-earth elements sYb3+d is analyzed by considering the transport, transition, and interaction of the fundamental energy carriers. The nonradiative decay and luminescence quenching in random media are enhanced compared to single crystals, due to multiple scattering, enhanced absorption, and low thermal conductivity. The coherent wave treatment is used to calculate the photon absorption, allowing for field enhancement and photon localization. The luminescent and thermal emission is considered as incoherent. The size-dependent absorption coefficient and penetration depth are observed. The nonradiative decay is identified as a multiphonon relaxation process, and is found to be enhanced compared to bulk materials. The luminescence quenching and nonlinear thermal emission, occurring with increasing irradiation intensity, are predicted. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. fDOI: 10.1063/1.1900937g