The importance of inversion disorder in the visible light induced persistent luminescence in Cr$^{3+}$ doped AB$_2$O$_4$ (A = Zn or Mg and B = Ga or Al)

TL;DR

This study investigates how antisite defects influence visible light-induced persistent luminescence in Cr$^{3+}$ doped AB$_2$O$_4$ spinel compounds, revealing the critical role of defect environment in luminescence mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates the correlation between antisite defect concentration and persistent luminescence, highlighting the importance of defect environment around Cr$^{3+}$ ions in spinel compounds.

Findings

Antisite defects decrease Cr-O bond length and crystal field energy.

Visible light excitation induces persistent luminescence in ZnGa$_2$O$_4$ and MgGa$_2$O$_4$.

Cr$^{3+}$ ions near antisite defects are key to luminescence mechanisms.

Abstract

Cr$^{3+}$ doped spinel compounds AB$_2$O$_4$ with A=Zn, Mg and B=Ga, Al exhibit a long near infrared persistent luminescence when excited with UV or X-rays. In addition, persistent luminescence of ZnGa$_2$O$_4$ and to a lesser extent MgGa$_2$O$_4$, can also be induced by visible light excitation via $^4$A$_2$ $ \rightarrow $ $^4$T$_2$ transition of Cr$^{3+}$, which makes these compounds suitable as biomarkers for in vivo optical imaging of small animals. We correlate this peculiar optical property with the presence of antisite defects, which are present in ZnGa$_2$O$_4$ and MgGa$_2$O$_4$. By using X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy, associated with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and optical emission spectroscopy, it is shown that an increase in antisite defects concentration results in a decrease in the Cr-O bond length and the octahedral crystal field energy. A part of the defects are in the close environment of Cr$^{3+}$ ions, as shown by the increasing strain broadening of EPR and XAFS peaks observed upon increasing antisite disorder. It appears that ZnAl$_2$O$_4$, which exhibits the largest crystal field splitting of Cr$^{3+}$ and the smallest antisite disorder, does not show considerable persistent luminescence upon visible light excitation as compared to ZnGa$_2$O$_4$ and MgGa$_2$O$_4$. These results highlight the importance of Cr$^{3+}$ ions with neighboring antisite defects in the mechanism of persistent luminescence exhibited by Cr$^{3+}$ doped AB$_2$O$_4$ spinel compounds.