Controllable and reversible electric field tuning of photoluminescence response in lanthanide ions doped ferroelectric films

The rare-earth doped ferroelectric photoluminescence (PL) phosphors are attracting considerable interest because of their flexible structure, wide band gap and high-quality fluorescence signal emission. Although the change of PL performance in different samples have been solved to a certain extent, how to achieve the tuning of PL intensity in one sample sensitively and reversibly is still an issue. In this work, we present an "electric-elastic-optical" coupled structure of 0.94Bi_0.5Na_0.5TiO₃–0.06BaTiO₃:1 mol%Eu³⁺ (BNTBT:Eu)/ 0.7Pb(Mg_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃–0.3PbTiO₃ (PMN-PT) heterostructures, which transfers strain from the PMN-PT to the BNTBT:Eu film via the converse piezoelectric effect and dynamically modulates the PL response of the epitaxial thin film. Our findings demonstrate that the PL response of the thin film can be effectively and linearly tuned under the influence of an external electric field. The relative change in the PL intensity (ΔI/I) of the BNTBT:Eu film was found to be linearly correlated with the lateral strain of the substrate. We also propose a novel design strategy for detecting strain, with significant implications for using BNTBT:Eu/PMN-PT heterostructures as sensors for integrating piezophotonic devices. This work provides valuable insights into the feasibility of electric field tuning of PL performance, which could inspire future research endeavors in the fields of nanophotonics, optical storage technology and photovoltaics.