Letter
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Sunlight stimulated solar-blind ultraviolet phosphor

Xiyu Zhao¹, Feng Liu ^1,*, Zengchao Yu¹, Xue Li¹, Chengrui Wang¹, Feng Chen¹, and Xiao-jun Wang ²

¹Key Laboratory for UV-Emitting Materials and Technology of Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
²Department of Physics, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia 30460, USA

^*fengliu@nenu.edu.cn

Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012028 – Published 10 March, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L012028

Abstract

As a matter of experience, people always take it for granted that ambient light should be eliminated for the research and application of storage phosphors. Such an empirical viewpoint has hindered the development of storage phosphors in a lighting environment. Herein, we introduce a glow-in-the-daylight phenomenon, which is essentially photostimulated luminescence of ultraviolet phosphor upon stimulation by polychromatic daylight. As a proof of concept, imaging and spectral experiments are carried out using an x-ray-charged ${LuPO}_{4}$ : $\Pr^{3 +}$ phosphor to demonstrate the glow performance. The charged phosphor exhibits solar-blind ultraviolet (200–280 nm) emission under sunlight, while its persistent luminescence is nearly absent in a dark environment, revealing the role of sunlight in releasing the stored energy of the phosphor. Moreover, inspired by the case of ${LuPO}_{4}$ : $\Pr^{3 +}$ , we expect to revisit other ultraviolet phosphors that do not exhibit persistent luminescence in the dark, enabling more glow-in-the-daylight materials to be developed.

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Phys. Rev. Research 4, L012028– Published 10 March, 2022

Vol. 4, Iss. 1 — March - May 2022

Received 23 October 2021
Accepted 15 February 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.4.L012028

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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Sunlight stimulated solar-blind ultraviolet phosphor

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