Designing photochromic materials with high photochromic contrast and large luminescence modulation for hand-rewritable information displays and dual-mode optical storage

Inorganic photochromic materials have been identified as attractive possibilities in many photonic applications due to their outstanding thermal stability and eminent fatigue resistance. However, the relatively low photochromic contrast of inorganic photochromic materials restricts their further development. A novel method for achieving high photochromic performance is presented in this paper through volatilization element selection, high temperature sintered and low-valence ion doping. The obtained Ba(Zr0.16Mg0.28Ta0.56)O3 ceramics exhibits an ultra-high photochromic contrast of 62.1% with a fast response time of 3 s upon alternate 365 nm illumination and 350 °C thermal stimulus (or 450 nm illumination), which presents the best performance among the inorganic photochromic materials. Benefiting from these excellent properties, Ba(Zr0.16Mg0.28Ta0.56)O3 is the pioneer inorganic photochromic ceramics to support real-time handwriting and photobleaching information display. Moreover, due to the perfect overlap between the absorption band of Ba(Zr0.16Mg0.28Ta0.56)O3:0.05%Pr3+ after 365 nm illumination and the excitation/emission peak of Pr3+, a large luminescence modulation of 92.5% is achieved, which reveals the great potential of Ba(Zr0.16Mg0.28Ta0.56)O3:0.05%Pr3+ in dual-mode optical information storage. This work is expected to provide a significant guidance for the design of high performance inorganic photochromic materials and promote the applications in optical information storage.