Structural destruction of cooperative luminescence – A new mechanism of fluorescence quenching

The cooperative luminescence of Yb3+-trimers and Yb3+-dimers were observed in Yb3+-doped CaF2 under excitation of near infrared (NIR) light at room temperature. With the increase of doped Al3+ or La3+ concentration, the cooperative luminescence from 3-Yb3+ trimers and 2-Yb2+ dimers decreased gradually and until to extinguished. In order to explain the phenomenon, in this paper, we propose a new fluorescence quenching mechanism, structure-destroyed fluorescence quenching. This new fluorescence quenching belongs to the static quenching.