Preparation and luminescence properties of Ce3+/Sm3+codoped A-Lu2SiO5@SiO2 core-shell nanospheres

X-ray induced photodynamic therapy (X-PDT) has been applied as an effective strategy against cancer. A novel nanoscintillator A-Lu2SiO5:Ce3+,Sm3+@SiO2 core-shell nanosphere was fabricated and its practicability in X-PDT has been demonstrated in this work. The emission and excitation spectra of the co-doped samples were measured, and the energy transfer (ET) from Ce3+ to Sm3+ was investigated using the Inokuti-Hirayama (I-H) model, revealing that the dominant mechanism of ET in the sample Lu2SiO5:Ce3+,Sm3+@SiO2 nanospheres would be electric dipole-dipole interaction. In particular, the corresponding spectra demonstrated ET between Ce3+ and Sm3+ under X-ray excitation, while light yield has been estimated for a representative co-doped sample. It was concluded that the as-prepared A-Lu2SiO5:Ce3+,Sm3+@SiO2 core-shell nanospheres have potential applications for the simultaneous excitation of blue and red activated photosensitizers in X-PDT as material for nanoscintillators. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement