Al2O3 co-doped with Cr3+ and Mn4+, a dual-emitter probe for multimodal non-contact luminescence thermometry.

Luminescence probes that facilitate multimodal non-contact measurements of temperature are of particular interest due to the possibility of cross-referencing results across different readout techniques. This intrinsic referencing is an essential addition that enhances accuracy and reliability of the technique. A further enhancement of sensor performance can be achieved by using two luminescent ions acting as independent emitters, thereby adding in-built redundancy to non-contact temperature sensing, using a single readout technique. In this study we combine both approaches by engineering a material with two luminescent ions that can be independently probed through different readout modes of non-contact temperature sensing. The approach was tested using Al2O3 co-doped with Cr3+ and Mn4+, exhibiting sharp emission lines due to 2E → 4A2 transitions. The temperature sensing performance was examined by measuring three characteristics: temperature-induced changes of the intensity ratio of the emission lines, their spectral position, and the luminescence decay time constant. The processes responsible for the changes with temperature of the measured luminescence characteristics are discussed in terms of relevant models. By comparing temperature resolutions achievable by different modes of temperature sensing it is established that in Al2O3-Cr,Mn spectroscopic methods provide the best measurement accuracy over a broad temperature range. A temperature resolution better than ±2.8 K can be achieved by monitoring the luminescence intensity ratio (40-145 K) and the spectral shift of the R-line of Mn4+ (145-300 K range).

Structure Peculiarities of Micro- and Nanocrystalline Perovskite Ferrites La1-x Sm x FeO3.

Micro- and nanocrystalline lanthanum-samarium ferrites La1-x Sm x FeO3 with orthorhombic perovskite structure were obtained by using both solid state reactions (x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.8) and sol-gel synthesis (x = 0.5) techniques. Obtained structural parameters of both series of La1-x Sm x FeO3 are in excellent agreement with the "pure" LaFeO3 and SmFeO3 compounds, thus proving formation of continuous solid solution in the LaFeO3-SmFeO3 system. Peculiarity of La1-x Sm x FeO3 solid solution is divergence behaviour of unit cell dimensions with increasing x: systematic decrease of the a and c lattice parameters is accompanied with increasing b parameter. Such behaviour of the unit cell dimensions in La1-x Sm x FeO3 series led to crossover of the a and c perovskite lattice parameters and formation of dimensionally tetragonal structure near x = 0.04. Linear decrease of the unit cell volume of La1-x Sm x FeO3 with decreasing x according with the Vegard's rule indicate absence of short-range ordering of R-cations in the LaFeO3-SmFeO3 system.