Potential and limitations of rare-earth luminescence in inverse opals

Inverse opals exhibiting strong photonic effects can cooperate with luminescent materials imbedded in their voids. While this has been demonstrated for dye molecules in the past, inspection of the literature reveals only few experiments on the potential of rare earths in this context. The efforts described focus on the spectral and spatial modification of emissive properties, whereas we here pursue the study of corresponding absorption properties. However, arbitrary incorporation of the luminescent species disturbs the photonic effects, therefore, principal preparative efforts need to be conducted to preserve both, the photonic properties of the opaline hosts and the luminescence efficiency of the guests. In this paper, we describe issues regarding the morphology and efficiency of inverse opal-incorporated rare-earth fluorides and oxifluorides and present an interior coating method for efficiency improvement. In addition, we were in this context, able to demonstrate the feasibility of energy transfer from Tb³⁺ modified host walls to Eu³⁺ guest species.