Phosphors have been used for years in many applications and have therefore been intensively studied. However, in the context of e.g. white light-emitting diodes this class of materials shows great potential and there is an ongoing interest in the search for phosphors providing a high conversion efficiency, colour-rendering index and stability. Moreover, the limits of light coupling into solar cells has stimulated a revisit of spectral light management research, in particular, up- and down-conversion. In the last few years, tremendous progress has been made in this area. It turns out that the different reasons for spectral management and some physical concepts behind it need a closer revisit.
Ralf Wehrspohn and Stefan Schweizer assembled a great collection of articles displaying the diversity of this timely research area. Contributions to this issue come from researchers in the USA, China, Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. The application fields of spectal converters range from light-emitting-diodes, scintillator materials, and biophotonics to nanotechnology, optical communication and solar cells.
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The Fluoride Host: Nucleation, Growth, and Upconversion of Lanthanide-Doped Nanoparticles
by Rafik Naccache, Qing Yu and John A. Capobianco
Upconversion Dynamics in Er3+-Doped Gd2O2S: Influence of Excitation Power, Er3+ Concentration, and Defects
by Rosa Martín-Rodríguez, Freddy T. Rabouw, Mattia Trevisani, Marco Bettinelli and Andries Meijerink
Photonic Crystal-Driven Spectral Concentration for Upconversion Photovoltaics
by Jose Marques-Hueso, Romain Peretti, Rafael Abargues, Bryce S. Richards, Christian Seassal and Juan P. Martínez-Pastor
