Highly stable multi-responsive yellow-emissive fluoride RbCdF3:Mn2+,Yb3+ for advanced optical anti-counterfeiting

Multi-responsive luminescent materials have significant advantages in optical anti-counterfeiting owing to the diversity of their luminescence modes. However, the development of multi-responsive luminescent materials that simultaneously exhibit more than three types of luminescence modes remains challenging. Herein, RbCdF3:Mn2+,Yb3+, a novel multi-responsive fluoride that exhibits all luminescence modes of Stokes, upconversion (UC), radioluminescence (RL), persistent luminescence (PersL), photostimulated luminescence (PSL), and thermoluminescence luminescence (TL) is developed. All modes produce bright-yellow emission (∼565 nm). Moreover, the PersL of RbCdF3:Mn2+,Yb3+ can be charged by both the high-energy X-rays and commercial 254 nm UV lamp, which is rarely observed for fluorides. Furthermore, RbCdF3:Mn2+,Yb3+ also exhibits superior luminescence stability at high temperatures and high humidity. Specifically, the emission intensity at 498 K is 141.14 % of that at room temperature, and retains 76.47 % after being dispersed in water for 50 days when excited by 254 nm light. The unique multi-responsive luminescent features and excellent environmental stability endow RbCdF3:Mn2+,Yb3+ with great potential for practical applications in advanced optical anti-counterfeiting.