Temperature dependent characteristics of La2O2S: Ln [Ln=Eu, Tb] with various Ln concentrations over 5–60 °C

This research is aimed at developing an optical sensor for remotely measuring human skin temperature in electromagnetically hostile environments, such as within a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. In this feasibility study, various concentrations of europium-doped lanthanum oxysulphide (La2O2S: Eu—0.1–15 mol% (m/o)) and terbium-doped lanthanum oxysulphide (La2O2S: Tb—0.005–50 m/o) have been investigated in terms of crystallinity, photoluminescent (PL) spectral and decay time characteristics. For both phosphors, X-ray diffraction (XRD) has shown that as dopancy increases, the (1 0 0) and (0 0 2) reflections merge and there is a reduction in the c-axis parameter as well as the crystallite size. Photoluminescent characterisation (337 nm excitation) has also shown a dependency to dopant concentration through variance of peak intensity. Temperature dependent decay time measurements were carried out over a low temperature range 5–60 °C. Optimum brightness of these temperature dependent lines is achieved at concentrations of 1 and 10 m/o for La2O2S: Eu and La2O2S: Tb respectively. However, optimum temperature dependency is achieved at lower concentration for La2O2S: Eu, specifically at 0.1 m/o. In comparison to conventional phosphor temperature dependent characteristic, La2O2S: Tb showed an increase in decay time with respect to temperature for concentrations above 2 m/o.