Simultaneous Tailoring of Dual-Phase Fluoride Precipitation and Dopant Distribution in Glass to Control Upconverting Luminescence.

In situ glass crystallization is an effective strategy to integrate lanthanide-doped upconversion nanocrystals into amorphous glass, leading to new hybrid materials and offering an unexploited way to study light-particle interactions. However, the precipitation of Sc-based nanocrystals from glass is rarely reported and the incorporation of lanthanide activators into the Sc-based crystalline lattice is formidably difficult owing to their large radius mismatch. Herein, it is demonstrated that lanthanide dopants with smaller ionic radii can act as nucleating agents to promote the nucleation/growth of KScF nanocrystals in oxyfluoride aluminosilicate glass.