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Photoexcitation at a certain wavelength in the NIR followed by
luminescence at a shorter wavelength in the VIS is called NIR to VIS
photon upconversion. This is a rather unusual process since low
energy photons are "converted" to higher energy photons. At least two
NIR photons are required to generate one VIS photon. Upconversion can
only occur in materials in which multiphonon relaxation processes are
not predominant, thus allowing more than one metastable excited state.
In rare-earth compounds, the 4f or 5f electrons are efficiently shielded
and thus not strongly involved in the metal-to-ligand bonding. As a
consequence, electron-phonon coupling to f-f transitions is reduced, and
multiphonon relaxation processes are less competitive. The phenomenon
of upconversion is therefore most common and best studied in materials
containing lanthanide ions. But there are also transition-metal systems
and rare-earth / transition-metal combinations which show this
phenomenon.