The Institute

Title: Investigating the Potential of Cr³⁺-Doped Pyroxene for Highly-Sensitive Optical Pressure Sensing

Authors: M. Szymczak, K. Su, L. Mei, M. Runowski, P. Wozny, Q. Guo, L. Liao, L. Marciniak

Journal: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c12145

In this study, Prof. Marciniak's group, in collaboration with colleagues from Poznan and China, investigated the effects of high pressure on the spectroscopic properties of Ca_0.8Sr_0.2MgSi₂O₆:Cr³⁺ to develop a novel luminescent manometer. Their findings demonstrate that the increase in applied pressure alters the crystal field strength interacting with Cr³⁺ ions, leading to a spectral shift in the emission band associated with the ⁴T₂®⁴A₂ electronic transition of Cr³⁺ ions and modifying the coupling between the ²E and ⁴T₂ levels. As a result, Ca_0.8Sr_0.2MgSi₂O₆:Cr³⁺ can serve as a luminescent manometer operating in two readout modes: ratiometric and luminescence kinetics. In the ratiometric mode, relative sensitivities as high as S_R = 50.7 ± 0.5% were achieved, with low thermal sensitivity of the readout (TIMF = 1558 K GPa⁻¹). For the luminescence kinetics mode, a relative sensitivity of approximately S_R ~ 8 ± 0.2% GPa^-1 at 5 GPa was observed, marking the highest sensitivity reported in the literature to date for this pressure level.

This work was funded by the NCN Opus project UMO-2020/37/B/ST5/00164. The work presented was funded under the NCN Opus project UMO- 2022/45/B/ST5/01629.