Upconversion and Phase Transition Characteristics in Erbium(III)- and Ytterbium(III)-Codoped Vanadium(IV) Oxide

Vanadium(IV) dioxide has emerged as a promising thermochromic material for smart window application through metal–insulator transition, which simultaneously involves an abrupt change in optical, electrical, and magnetic properties. Here, Er³⁺ or Yb³⁺-codoped vanadium(IV) dioxide has been prepared by a hydrothermal and annealing process. The structure, metal–insulator transition, and upconversion luminescence characterizations have been evaluated using X-ray diffraction, differential thermal analysis, and fluorescence spectral analysis. The samples exhibit unique properties, including enhancing the intensity of upconversion emission, decreasing the metal–insulator transition temperature to 41.4°C, and emitting bright green upconversion emission along with extremely weak emission in the red region under 980?nm excitation. Moreover, green upconversion luminescence intensity increased by an order of magnitude from the low-temperature monoclinic structure of vanadium(IV) dioxide to the high-temperature rutile structure of vanadium(IV) dioxide for the first time, which will pave a new pathway for researching the application of photoluminescence in smart materials.