Journal of Solid State Chemistry 216 (2014) 3641

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Journal of Solid State Chemistry

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jssc

Understanding the infrared to visible upconversion luminescence

properties of Er3 /Yb3 co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystals
Rajesh Adhikari a, Jinhyuk Choi a, R. Narro-Garca b, E. De la Rosa b,
Tohru Sekino c, Soo Wohn Lee a,n
a

Research Center for Eco-Multifunctional Nanomaterials, SunMoon University, Asan, Republic of Korea
Centro de Investigaciones en ptica, A. P.1-948, Len, Gto. 37150, Mexico
c
Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
b

art ic l e i nf o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 1 December 2013
Received in revised form
24 March 2014
Accepted 20 April 2014
Available online 6 May 2014

In this paper we report the infrared to visible upconversion luminescence properties of Er3 /Yb3
co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystals synthesized via microwave assisted solgel processing route. Structural,
morphological and upconversion luminescence properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD),
Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UVvis diffuse reectance spectroscopy (UVvis DRS) and
Upconversion Photoluminescence spectra analysis. Results revealed that the oval shaped BaMoO4
nanocrystals ranging in size from 40 to 60 nm having tetragonal scheelite crystal structure were
obtained by solgel route. The infrared to visible upconversion luminescence has been investigated in
Er3 /Yb3 co-doped in BaMoO4with different Yb3 concentrations. Intense green upconversion
emissions around 528, 550 nm, and red emission at 657 nm corresponding to the 2H11/2, 4S3/2, and
4
F9/2 transitions, respectively to the 4I15/2 ground state were observed when excited by CW laser
radiation at 980 nm. The green emissions were greatly enhanced after the addition of sensitizer (Yb3
ions). The effect of Yb3 on the upconversion luminescence intensity was analyzed and explained in
terms of the energy transfer process based. The reported work establishes the understanding of
molybdates as an alternative host material for upconversion luminescence.
& 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
BaMoO4
Solgel
Infrared
Upconversion luminescence
Green emissions

1. Introduction
Recently, the researches on rare earth ions doped upconversion
luminescence materials have received a considerable attention
because of their applications in many advanced technology elds,
such as three-dimensional display, photonics, upconversion luminescence lasers, temperature sensors, DNA detection and biological analyses as biolabels [1,2]. Trivalent lanthanide ions such as
Ho3 , Tm3 and Er3 are commonly used as activator ions for UC
luminescence due to their abundant energy levels for radiative
transition [3,4]. Among these rare earth ions, Er3 is an excellent
candidate for a UC luminescent agent because of its unique
properties such as blue emission around 480 nm and NIR emission
near 800 nm, however, Er3 has a very low absorption cross
section around 980 nm. Therefore, an effective sensitization of
the activator ion is required for the upper level population of
activator ions through energy transfer process. Among the different sensitizers, Yb3 has an excellent sensitization effect and

Corresponding author. Tel.: 82 41 530 2882; fax: 82 41 530 2840.

E-mail address: swlee@sunmoon.ac.kr (S.W. Lee).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2014.04.013
0022-4596/& 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

therefore chosen as the best sensitizer in UC materials in order to

facilitate efcient energy transfer from the sensitizer (Yb3 ) to
activator (Er3 ) ion [5]. It is because the Yb3 has a large
absorption cross-section near 980 nm and has the large spectral
overlap between Yb3 emission of 2F5/2 to 2F7/2 and Er3 absorption of 4I15/2 to 4I11/2 [6]. Most of the lanthanide UC studies have
been focused on the investigation of lanthanide-doped halides,
glasses, and oxides host materials [79]. Metal oxide materials are
usually very stable in terms of chemical, mechanical and thermal
stability and could therefore be promising host matrices for UC
applications [10]. Chung et al. [11] studied the UC luminescence on
CaMoO4 and reported the suitable host material for UC luminescence. In our previous work [12], we investigated the infrared to
visible upconversion luminescence of Er3 /Yb3 co-doped
Bi2MoO6 and found the Bi2MoO6 as a promising host material for
enhanced UC luminescence. However, UC luminescence properties
of rare earth ions doped BaMoO4 has not been reported yet.
Barium molybdate (BaMoO4) is one of the most important
members of molybdate family having scheelite-type tetragonal
structure and has potential applications in various elds such as
photoluminescence, solid-state lasers, photocatalysts and optical
bers [13]. Various methods have been employed to synthesize

R. Adhikari et al. / Journal of Solid State Chemistry 216 (2014) 3641

BaMoO4 nanopowders [14]. Among them, microwave assisted

solvothermal synthesis has several advantages such as the formation of product with controlled particle sizes and well-dened
morphologies, short processing time, low synthesis temperature,
environmentally friendly and very high purity of the synthesized
products [15].
Therefore, in this research work we report the physicochemical
and upconversion luminescence properties of Er3 /Yb3
co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystals synthesized by the microwave
assisted solvothermal method for the rst time and make a clear
understanding of the upconversion luminescence behavior of rare
earth doped BaMoO4nanocrystals.

37

diameter of 371 mm at 1/e2 of the maximum intensity. The emitted

signal was focused onto a PC-controlled SP-2357 spectrograph
(Acton Research) and detected by a photomultiplier tube R955
(Hamamatsu). The system was controlled with a PC where emission spectra were obtained. Samples were supported in 1 mm
capillary tubes and measurements were done at room temperature. Special care was taken to maintain the alignment of the set
up in order to compare the intensity of the upconverted signal
between different characterized samples.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Structural and morphological analysis

2. Experimental
2.1. Materials and methods
All the chemicals were of analytical grade and used without
further purication. Ba (NO3)2 (99%), H2MoO4 (99.9%), ErCl3  6H2O
(99.9%), YbCl3  6H2O (99.9%) were purchased from Sigma Aldrich.
Ethylene glycol was received from Alfa Aesar Ltd. Aqueous ammonia solution (30%) was used to maintain pH of the solutions.
Deionized water was used throughout the washing process.
In a typical procedure, stoichiometric amount of Ba(NO3)2 and
H2MoO4 were dissolved in 20 mL ethylene glycol in separate
beakers (a) and (b). In this research work, concentration of Er3
ion was xed to be 2 mol% for all samples and concentration of
Yb3 was varied from 0 to 12 mol%. Aqueous solution of erbium
chloride (2 mol%) was prepared in a separate beaker (c). Similarly,
aqueous solution of ytterbium chloride (2 mol%, 4 mol%, 8 mol%
and 12 mol%) was prepared in another beaker (d). After making all
precursor solutions, solution (a) was mixed to the solution
(b) dropwise with continuous stirring and the solution (c) and
(d) were added to the suspension formed from (a) and (b). Here,
the combination of dopant ions with host barium molybdate was
Er3 /Yb3 : 2/0, 5/0, 2/4, 2/8, and 2/12, respectively. The pH of the
whole suspension formed after mixing all the precursor solutions
was adjusted to 9 by using ammonia solution andwas magnetically
stirred for 2 h.The resulting precursor suspension was transferred
to a Teon Vessel for microwave assisted solvothermal treatment,
(Eyela MWO-1000 Wave Magic). The mixture was heated at 150 1c
for 0.5 h and the 200 W powers were used to get the required
temperature. All these conditions were monitored by a step
program inbuilt in the microwave reactor itself. Samples were
washed with de-ionized water several times, dried in air at 70 1C
and nally calcined in air at 400 1C for 5 h. One more sample of
pure barium molybdate (BMO-0/0) was also prepared for comparative purpose by the similar procedure. For the convenience,
samples were labeled as BMO-0/0, BMO-1/0, BMO-5/0, BMO-2/2,
BMO-2/4, BMO-2/8, and BMO-2/12, respectively.

The crystalline structure and morphology of the Er3 /Yb3

co-doped BaMoO4 samples were analyzed by means of XRD, and
TEM analysis. It is important to note that the material under study
is investigated without the addition of charge compensators,
according to charge compensation mechanism [1618], luminescence behavior is dependent upon the charge compensation
induced by the addition of charge compensators mostly by the
addition of alkali metal ions such as Li , Na , K etc. Owing to
this fact, authors also believe that the investigated samples posses
some cationic vacancies due to the imbalance of charges between
Ba2 ion and the doped Er3 /Yb3 ions which might be detrimental for upconversion luminescence. Effect of charge compensators on the upconversion luminescence phenomena will be
investigated in our upcoming research work and excluding the
effect of charge compensation does not change the importance of
upconversion characterization, the physical description and the
importance of samples under study and the observed upconversion luminescence presented here is in absence of charge compensators. Fig. 1 shows the typical diffraction patterns of the as
synthesized samples calcined at 400 1C for 5 h. It is revealed from
Fig. 1 that all the diffraction patterns could be readily indexed to
scheellite-type tetragonal structure of BaMoO4 (JCPDS card no. 290193) and no signal for any other impurities or secondary phases
were observed in the Er3 /Yb3 doped BaMoO4 samples, implying
that a very few amount of dopants have been doped in the host
lattice and the charge difference induced by trivalent ions (Er3 ,
Yb3 ) doped into the site of bivalent host ions (Ba2 ) did not
affect the structural properties of the BaMoO4 [11]. Moreover,

2.2. Characterization
The crystalline structure of the as synthesized samples was
characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) method by using
X-ray diffractometer (Rigaku, D/MAX 2200HR). The morphologies
and sizes of the samples were observed by Transmission Electron
microscopy (JEM-2010, JEOL Ltd, Japan). Diffuse Reectance Spectroscopy (DRS) spectra were recorded by UVvis spectrophotometer (JASCO V 570). Raman spectra were recorded by Raman
spectrometer (Horiba, LabRam, HR-800) at 532.15 nm excitation
wavelengths. The UC spectra were recorded by exciting the
samples at 980 nm with 120200 mW from a Continuous Wave
Laser Diode (CWLD). The CWLD was focused onto the sample with
a 5 cm focal length lens. The focused laser beam had a spot

Fig. 1. XRD patterns of Er3 /Yb3 codoped BaMOO4 nanocrystals annealed at 400 1C
for 5 h.

38

R. Adhikari et al. / Journal of Solid State Chemistry 216 (2014) 3641

Fig. 3. UVvis diffuse reectance spectra of Er3 /Yb3

nanocrystals.

Fig. 2. Representative TEM images of BMO-0/0 (a), and BMO-5/0 (b).

intensity of the doped samples is decreased as compared to pure

BaMoO4 (BMO-0/0), indicates that the degree of cationic ordering
is decreased by the doping with trivalent rare earth ions. It is
noteworthy to mention that there is signicant peak broadening of
the doped samples as compared to pure BaMoO4 sample. Broadening of the diffraction peak (1 1 2) with increase in Yb3
concentrations implies that a high doping concentration of Yb3
ions would lead to a decrease in crystallinity due to lattice
shrinkage of the BaMoO4 matrix which in turn can be attributed
to the Steric effect induced by the successful doping of rare earth
ions [19] This effect causes either no change or the slight reduction
of cell volume of the compounds because of the substitution of
smaller rare-earth ions Er3 /Yb3 , (88.1 pm/86.8 pm) for the
larger Ba2  (149 pm) ions [20].
Morphology of the prepared samples was investigated by means
of TEM analysis and the typical representative TEM images are
presented in Fig. 2. It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the oval shaped
BaMoO4 nanocrystals were formed as a result of the microwave
assisted solvothermal process. Various reports have been published
on the morphology of the BaMoO4 particles indicating the formation
of semi micron to micron size of BaMoO4 particles [2123], however,
in our present work, BaMoO4 particles of nanosize dimensions have
been formed as a result of microwave assisted solvothermal process
which is much advantageous than other synthetic procedure. The
average particles size of the nanocrystals is about 60 nm for
BMO-0/0 where as the BMO-5/0 consists of nanocrystals having
smaller size, about 45 nm as compared to BMO-0/0. Moreover, as
seen from Fig. 2, there is variation in the particle morphology,
assumes the spherical shape with slight agglomeration, as result of
high surface energy of the smaller nanocrystals after the doping
with Er3 /Yb3 ions in the BMO-5/0 sample (see Fig. 2b). It is due to
the fact that the crystal growth of the BaMoO4 during the

codoped BaMoO4

solvothermal treatment is hindered by the doped Er3 /Yb3 ions

which was further conrmed by the peak broadening as seen in
XRD analysis. Moreover, EDX analysis of the samples were performed to investigate the dopant concentration in the synthesized
samples and are presented in the supplementary information which
conrmed that the as sunthesized samples contain Er3 and Yb3
ions doped in the host lattice. Hence, From the XRD and TEM
analysis it is conrmed that Er3 /Yb3 doped BaMoO4nanocrystals
were successfully synthesized by microwave assisted solvothermal
process.
Fig. 3 displays the absorption spectra of the samples in the
range of 200800 nm.In BMO-0/0 sample there are no absorption
bands in the entire region of the spectrum, however, in doped
samples, four absorption bands appeared with appreciable intensity corresponding to transitions from the 4I15/2 ground state of the
Er3 ion to different excited states [24]. Transitions to the excited
4
G11/2, 4F7/2, 2H11/2, 4F9/2 states are identied at 378, 488, 523,
654 nm, respectively [25].

3.2. Upconversion properties

Fig. 4a shows the typical UC emission spectra (510690 nm) of
Er3 doped and Er3 /Yb3 co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystals
recorded at 980 nm excitation. The excitation power and the
pump power density in Fig. 4 were 195 mW and 180 W/cm2,
respectively. Spectra recorded for different concentrations of Yb3
doped samples show similar features except for an increase in
intensities of the UC bands. The structure and position of all bands
are in agreement with results reported in the literature. The signal
emitted obtained after excitation at 980 nm shows three intense
visible emission bands, green emission bands at 528 nm and
550nm, and red emission band at 657 nm, as the result of the UC
process (Fig. 4a). These bands are assigned to 2H11/2-4I15/2,
4
S3/2-4I15/2 and 4F9/2-4I15/2 transitions of the Er3 ion, respectively [12,26]. Another interesting point from Fig. 4a, is that the
(2H11/2-4I15/2)/(4S3/2-4I15/2) emission ratio increases from
1.04 70.03 to 1.88 70.187 for samples BMO-1/0 and BMO-5/0
respectively. Generally the intensity ratios between the 2H11/2,
4
S3/2 and 4F9/2 emission are different for different samples. This
variation in the transition intensities could depend among other
factors on the rare earth concentration [27] and/or the thermal
effect induced by the pump power [28].

R. Adhikari et al. / Journal of Solid State Chemistry 216 (2014) 3641

39

Fig. 4. Up-conversion emission spectra of the Er3 /Yb3 co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystals upon excitation at 980 nm (a), Integrated upconversion intensity as a function of
the Er3 /Yb3 ions concentration (b). (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

In order to understand the thermal effect of laser irradiation,

the up-conversion emission spectra were measured at different
irradiation times (from 0 to 40 min with steps of 5 min) when the
samples were excited with a 980 nm laser working at 180 W/cm2.
The overall integrated intensity and the relationship between the
emission intensity ratio (2H11/2-4I15/2) /(4S3/2-4I15/2) were
obtained from these up-conversion emission spectra. It was found
that both the 528/550 ratio and the overall integrated intensity
remain constant with the increasing of irradiation time. This
indicates that the local heating due to laser absorption at
980 nm with a 180 W/cm2 pump power density has not a strong
effect on the shape or intensity of the UC.
A quantication of the overall signal emitted and the relationship between the green and red integrated emission intensity ratio
of (2H11/2 4S3/2)-4I15/2 and 4F9/2-4I15/2 transitions in dependence on the rare earth ions concentration is shown in Fig. 4b.
In order to indicate the uncertainties of the UC integrated intensity
versus the Er3 /Yb3 ratio, the UC emission were measured ten
times for each sample, changing the zone of the sample that was
irradiated by the laser. The corrected sample standard deviation,
denoted by s was calculated using the following equation:
s
N
1
s
x  x2
N 1 i 1 i
where{x1, x2,,xN} are the observed values of the sample items
and x is the mean value of these observations, while the denominator N stands for the size of the sample (N 10).
The overall intensity of the signal emitted depends on the
concentration of both ions, but the concentration of sensitizer ion
is dominant factor. The increment of Er3 ion without the
presence of the sensitizer enhances the overall intensity of the
signal and modies the green/red ratio, see Fig. 4a and b. Both
gures show the enhancement of the overall intensity of the signal
and the quenching of the red emission for high Er3 ions
concentration.
The highest overall intensity was observed at 2 mol% of Er3
ion and 4 mol% of Yb3 ion (BMO-2/4) and for higher Yb3
concentration, the overall intensity decreased. Therefore, a strong
enhancement of the green band emitted by Er3 /Yb3 co-doped
nanocrystals has been observed with the introduction of sensitizer
but after a critical concentration, 4 mol% of Yb3 , the green band
was strongly quenched as depicted in Fig. 4b. This maximum
intensity is explained in terms of the energy transfer efciency due
to the right concentration of sensitizer (donors) while the

decrement of signal is probably associated with the energy

migration between donors (Yb3 ) and the Energy Back Transfer
(EBT) from acceptor (Er3 ) to donor (Yb3 ) as a result of the high
ions concentration [27,29,30].
3.3. The upconversion mechanism
To understand the UC process, the pump power dependence of
the uorescent radiation was also investigated. For the UC process,
the emission intensity, Iuc increases proportional to the power of
the infrared pump radiation, Pin. The number of photons that are
necessary to populate the upper emitting state can be obtained by
the following relation, Iuc P nin , where Iuc is the uorescent
intensity, P is the pump laser power and n is the number of pump
photons absorbed per upconverted photons emitted. The value of
Iuc was measured as a function of Pin for all samples at 980 nm
excitation and the results are shown on a loglog plot in Fig. 5. The
plot of log Iuc versus log Pin yields a straight line with slope n.
Results reveal an increase of the up-conversion intensities when
the pump power is increased. From this gure it is evident that the
value of n is approaching to 2 which indicate that the UC process
in Er3 is governed by a two photon processes.
Based on the above results and reported mechanisms in the
literatures [31,32], the possible UC scheme for the Er3 doped and
Er3 /Yb3 co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystalsis presented in Fig. 6.
After excitation at 980 nm excitation, Er3 from the ground state
(4I15/2) is excited rst to the 4I11/2 level through one of the
following processes: Ground State Absorption (GSA): 4I15/2
(Er3 ) a photon-4I11/2 (Er3 ); Energy transfer from Yb3
(2F5/2) state (ET1): 2F5/2 (Yb3 ) 4I15/2 (Er3 )-2F7/2(Yb3 ) 4I11/2
(Er3 ); and Energy Transfer (ET) from the 4I11/2state of adjacent
Er3 . Among these three processes, energy transfer from Yb3 is
most probable in the case of Er3 /Yb3 co-doped BaMoO4nanocrystals due to the larger absorption cross-section of Yb3 at 980
nm. After the excitation at 4I11/2 state, further excitation at 4F7/2
state takes place either of the three following processes: (1) Excited
State Absorption (ESA1) 4I11/2 (Er3 ) a photon-4F7/2(Er3 );
(2) ET2 from Yb3 , 2F5/2 (Yb3 ) 4I11/2 (Er3 )-2F7/2(Yb3 ) 4F7/2
(Er3 ); and (3) ET from the 4I11/2 state of adjacent Er3 , 4I11/2
(Er3 ) 4I11/2(Er3 )-4F7/2 (Er3 ) 4I15/2(Er3 ), in the last case,
the energy transfer mechanism promotes one Er3 ion populated
at 4I11/2 to the higher lying level 4F7/2 while a neighboring Er3 ion
also populated at 4I11/2 is taken back to the ground state. Populated
4
F7/2 state may undergo nonradiative relaxation to the 2H11/2
intermediate state through multiphonon relaxation process and

40

R. Adhikari et al. / Journal of Solid State Chemistry 216 (2014) 3641

Fig. 5. Dependence of the integrated (area under the curve) upconversion intensities on the pump power (Pin). The straight lines are the ttings obtained by linear regression
to the experimental data for each wavelength. (a) BMO-1/0, (b) BMO-5/0, (c) BMO-2/2, (d) BMO-2/4, (e) BMO-2/8 and (f) BMO-2/12.

Fig. 6. Energy level diagram of Er3 and Yb3 for the proposed mechanism of UC
process showing: the excited state absorption (ESA), the resonant energy transfer
(ET) process and the energy back transfer (EBT).

nally the transition from 2H11/2-4I15/2 state results on the green

emission at 528 nm. Similarly, Er3 ion at the 4F7/2 state can also
decay rapidly down to the 4S3/2 state, and nally the 4S3/2-4I15/2
transition reveals 550 nm green emissions. It was observed two
different routes for the Red UC emission (RUC1 and RUC2). For
RUC1, population at 4S3/2 state may decays nonradiatively to the
4
F9/2 state and from there the 4F9/2-4I15/2 transition results on the
red emission at 657 nm. This RUC1 was conrmed with the
presence of red emission without the presence of the sensitizer.

For RCU2 population on 4I13/2 state is feed by phonon coupling of

4
I11/2 (4000 cm  1) which is promoted probably by the host
vibration that will require  5 phonons (900 cm  1), as seen in
Raman spectra, see Supplementary information, S2. Population at
4
I13/2 state are promoted to the 4F9/2 state by one of the two
following process: (1) ESA2, 4I13/2 (Er3 ) photon-4F9/2 (Er3 );
2
and
(2)
ET3
from
Yb3 ,
F5/2(Yb3 ) 4I13/2(Er3 )2
F7/2(Yb3 ) 4F9/2(Er3 ). The RCU2 was conrmed by decrease in
the green/red ratio for higher Yb3 concentrations.
These mechanisms are consistent with the two photons
required to produce green and red bands as was described above
and is in agreement with the most standard explanation of the UC
process, especially for low ion concentration [31]. However experimental results show strong dependence on the ion concentration
suggesting the presence of additional mechanism to produce UC
emission, see Fig. 4a. According to Solis et al. [27], cross relaxation
(CR) and energy back transfer (EBT) are two of the most important
factors to quench the UC intensities. The cross relaxation process is
a quenching mechanism that is strongly depends on Er3 concentration. This process induces a decrement of population on
(2H11/2 4S3/2) and an increment on 4I13/2 level. In this case, the
population on 4I13/2 is promoted to 4F9/2state by the phonon
assisted energy transfer from an excited Yb3 or Er3 ion. In
other words, the cross relaxation process is characterized by a
strong quenching of the green band and the enhanced of the red
band. However, the increment of Er3 ion without the presence of
the sensitizer (samples BMO-1/0 and BMO-5/0) enhances the
overall intensity of the signal and increase the green/red ratio,
see Fig. 4a and b. Such behavior indicates that the quenching of the
4
S3/2-4I15/2 transition in the UC emission with increase in
Er3 concentration could be due to the concentration quenching
effect caused by energy migration among Er3 ions and not due to
the CR process. On the other hand, the EBT was conrmed by the

R. Adhikari et al. / Journal of Solid State Chemistry 216 (2014) 3641

enhancement of the red band and the quenching of the overall

intensity of signal for higherYb3 concentration. The EBT is
described by the equation (2H11/2 2F7/2)-(4I13/2 2F5/2). This
process has two effects: increases the population on 4I13/2 of
Er3 ion and the population on 2F5/2 of Yb3 ion. The former is
partly promoted to 4F9/2 by theET3 produced by the nonradiative
relaxation of Yb3 (2F5/2), see Fig. 6. It is to notice that EBT, and
then quenching of the green band, start for concentration larger
than 2 mol% of Yb3 but for 8 mol% quenching of the overall signal
emitted was observed as a result of energy migration produced by
the cluster formation of Yb3 ion.
4. Conclusions
Er3 /Yb3 co-doped BaMoO4 nanocrystals were successfully
synthesized by microwave assisted solgel process and their
infrared to visible UC luminescence was investigated. The results
revealed that as synthesized material can produce intense green
UC luminescence at 532 nm, 546 nm and weak red emissions at
655 nm under excitation at 980 nm. UC mechanism in the material
is governed by two photon process and strongly depends upon the
concentration of Yb3 ion. Therefore, this research work explores
the suitability of BaMoO4nanocrystals in the eld of photonic
applications.
Acknowledgments
This research work has been supported by Global Research
Laboratory (GRL) program of the National Research Foundation of
Korea (NRF) funded by Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST), Korea grant number (2010-00339). We acknowledge to CONACYT for nancial support through grant 134111 and
postdoctoral scholarship for R.N.G.
Appendix A. Supporting information
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in
the online version at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2014.04.013.
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