Boltzmann Thermometry at Cryogenic Temperatures Exploiting Stark Sublevels in Er$^{3+}$/Yb$^{3+}$-Codoped Yttrium Oxide Nanoparticles

TL;DR

This study demonstrates a cryogenic optical thermometer using Er$^{3+}$/Yb$^{3+}$-doped yttria nanoparticles, exploiting Stark sublevels for high sensitivity and resolution across 25-175 K, confirming theoretical predictions about energy level differences.

Contribution

It introduces a novel cryogenic thermometry method based on Stark sublevels in lanthanide-doped nanoparticles, with high sensitivity and validated theoretical insights.

Findings

Achieves up to 1.25% K$^{-1}$ sensitivity at 100 K

Temperature resolution reaches 0.2 K

Confirms theoretical prediction that performance isn't dependent on average energy level differences

Abstract

The development of reliable luminescent nanothermometers for cryogenic applications is essential for advancing quantum technologies, superconducting systems, and other fields that require precise, high-spatial-resolution temperature monitoring. Lanthanide-doped systems are vastly employed to this purpose, and typically perform optimally at or above room temperature when manifold-to-manifold transitions are used. In this work we exploit individual Stark sublevels to demonstrate an optical thermometer based on Er$^{3+}$/Yb$^{3+}$ codoped yttria (Y$_2$O$_3$) nanoparticles that operates effectively across the temperature range from 25 K to 175 K. This is achieved due to the pronounced crystal field environment of the the Y$_2$O$_3$ host matrix, leading to well-separated Stark lines in the luminescence spectrum of the Er$^{3+}$ ions. By applying the Luminescence Intensity Ratio (LIR) method to transitions originating from two Stark components of the $^4$S$_{3/2}$ manifold of the Er$^{3+}$ ions, we achieve thermal sensitivities up to 1.25 % K$^{-1}$ at 100 K and temperature resolutions reaching 0.2 K. Our results further experimentally confirm recently published theoretical predictions, demonstrating that thermometric performance is not directly dependent on the average (barycenter) difference of the involved electronic energy levels when using individual Stark transitions to evaluate the LIR. The proposed procedure gives an energy gap calibration that matches the one determined by sample spectroscopy for non-overlapping lines in the luminescence spectrum. These insights provide a robust foundation for the design of high-performance cryogenic thermometers based on rare-earth-doped materials.