Controllable Thermo-Stimulated Luminescence in Niobate Persistent Phosphor by Constructing the Photovoltaic/Electrolytic Cell for Remote Intelligent Anti-Counterfeiting

Abstract

Persistent luminescence (PersL) carrying remote key information plays a crucial role for intelligent anti-counterfeiting applications. However, the weak PersL intensity accompanied by uncontrollability limits their practical application. Here we develop LiNbO3 (LNO):Pr,Bi phosphor with enhanced red PersL by trace doping Sm3+. The LNO:Pr,Bi,Sm phosphor exhibits quadruplet luminescence, including polychrome photoluminescence, PersL, and photo/thermo-stimulated luminescence (PSL/TSL). Particularly, the enhanced TSL can carry remote subjective information independent of the phosphor itself by controlling the temperature. A mechanism of afterglow enhancement is proposed based on constructing reversible photovoltaic cells and electrolytic cells by photothermal redox reactions using Bi3+ + VO and Bi3+/Pr3+ + VLi' ion pair. This study has sparked the exploration of designing the information storage PersL materials for more sophisticated remote intelligent anti-counterfeiting.