Gas compositional and pressure effects on thermographic phosphor thermometry

In the present study, the influence of gas compositional and pressure conditions on thermographic phosphor thermometry was investigated. A heatable pressurized and optical accessible calibration chamber was built to measure the phosphorescence decay time at different temperatures as well as at different partial and absolute pressures. At room temperature, the absolute pressure could be increased to 30 bar. To vary the gas composition, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, methane, helium as well as water vapour were used. Three different phosphors were investigated: Mg4FGeO6:Mn, La2O2S:Eu and Y2O3:Eu. Phosphorescence was excited by the third and the fourth harmonics of a pulsed Nd:YAG-laser (355 nm and 266 nm, respectively) and recorded temporally resolved by a photomultiplier. Mg4FGeO6:Mn as well as La2O2S:Eu were not influenced significantly by varying partial and absolute pressures. In contrast, Y2O3:Eu showed a strong sensitivity on the oxygen concentration of the surrounding gas phase as well as irreversible changes in the phosphorescence decay time after increasing the absolute pressure.