A NIR to NIR rechargeable long persistent luminescence phosphor Ca2Ga2GeO7:Yb3+,Tb3+

Near infrared to near infrared (NIR–NIR) photo-stimulated persistent luminescence (PSPL) has shown excellent potential in high-resolution bioimaging for deep tissues. However, the PSPL in NIR-Ⅱ region (900–1700 nm) is still lacking. In this work, Ca2Ga2GeO7:Yb3+,Tb3+ (CGGYT) phosphor with unique low-dimensional crystal structure was synthesized by high-temperature solid–state reaction. Thanks to the carriers transferring from deep traps to shallow ones induced by low energy light, the 978 nm PSPL originating from 2F5/2 to 2F7/2 transition of Yb3+ induced by multimode stimulating (980 nm or WLED) is successfully realized after pre-excited by UV lamp. The NIR PSPL of the specimen can be repeatedly stimulated after placed in dark for 12 h. Moreover, the results indicate that codoping with Tb3+ can significantly enhance the NIR-II PSPL owing to the quantum cutting persistent energy transfer (QC PET) from Tb3+ to Yb3+. Our study points to a new direction for the future development of multimode PSPL materials for bioimaging or multimode optical storage applications.