Activating Ultrahigh Thermoresponsive Upconversion in an Erbium Sublattice for Nanothermometry and Information Security

Thermal activation of upconversion luminescence in nanocrystals opens up new opportunities in biotechnology and nanophotonics. However, it remains a daunting challenge to achieve a smart control of luminescence behavior in the thermal field with remarkable enhancement and ultrahigh sensitivity. Moreover, the physical picture involved is also debatable. Here we report a novel mechanistic design to realize an ultrasensitive thermally activated upconversion in an erbium sublattice core–shell nanostructure. By enabling a thermosensitive property into the intermediate 4I11/2 level of Er3+ through an energy-migration-mediated surface interaction, the upconverted luminescence was markedly enhanced in the thermal field together with a striking thermochromic feature under 1530 nm irradiation. Importantly, the use of non thermally coupled red and green emissions contributes to the thermal sensitivity up to 5.27% K–1, 3 times higher than that obtained by using conventional thermally coupled green emissions. We further demonstrate that the controllable surface interaction is a general approach to the thermal enhancement of upconversion for a series of lanthanide-based nanomaterials. Our findings pave a new way for the development of smart luminescent materials toward emerging applications such as noncontact nanothermometry, information security, and anticounterfeiting.