Excitation Wavelength Engineering through Organic Linker Choice in Luminescent Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposited Lanthanide-Organic Thin Films

Abstract

We demonstrate multiple roles for the organic linkerin luminescentlanthanide-organic thin films grown with the strongly emergingatomic/molecular layer deposition technique. Besides rendering thehybrid thin film mechanically flexible and keeping the lanthanidenodes at a distance adequate to avoid concentration quenching, theorganic moieties can act as efficient sensitizers for the lanthanideluminescence. We investigate six different aromatic organic precursorsin combination with Eu3+ ions to reveal that by introducingdifferent nitrogen species within the aromatic ring, it is possibleto extend the excitation wavelength area from the UV range to thevisible range. This opens new horizons for the application space ofthese efficiently photoluminescent thin-film materials.