Negligible concentration quenching in transparent silica–rare‐earth orthophosphate glass‐ceramic phosphors

Abstract Concentration quenching refers to the lowering of photoluminescence intensity at high concentrations of photoactive centers and is frequently observed in many phosphors. When excitation migration through photoactive centers and subsequent deactivation at quenching centers is the main mechanism, concentration quenching may be avoided if quenching centers can be completely eliminated. Nanoparticles satisfy these requirements, and transparent silica glasses containing rare‐earth (RE) orthophosphate nanocrystals (silica–REPO 4 transparent glass‐ceramics) represent such examples. Negligible concentration quenching is observed in sol–gel‐derived silica–(Tb,Ce)PO 4 transparent green phosphors and silica–(Gd,Pr)PO 4 transparent ultraviolet phosphors.