(Y 0.968 Er 0.002 Yb 0.030) 2 O 3 Upconverting Particles as Optical Heater

The optical heating of upconverting particles and its surrounding volume has a vital role in biomedical and therapeutic applications. The internal self-heating in (Y 0.968 Er 0.002 Yb 0.030 ) 2 O 3 upconverting particles synthesized by urea assisted combustion route has been detected under 980 nm diode laser excitation. A temperature rise up to 348 K has been computed using fluorescence intensity ratio (FIR) method of the thermalized upconversion emission bands due to 2 H 11/2 → 4 I 15/2 and 4 S 3/2 → 4 I 15/2 transitions of Er 3+ ion. The results indicate that the material is an interesting candidate for optical heater in biomedical applications.