Author(s)

Sebastián López-Romero, María Jesús Quiroz-Jiménez, Manuel Hipólito García, Alfredo Aguilar-Castillo

Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Circuito Interior S/N Ciudad Universitaria México, México, D.F., México.

Pure, and Europium ion doped Zinc oxide nanocrystals (ZnO:Eu³⁺) were synthesized by a solution combustion technique. The X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) reveals the existence of the Eu₂O₃ phase. From the results of both, X-ray diffraction and photoluminescence spectra (PL) reveal that Eu³⁺ ions successfully substitute for Zn²⁺ ions in the ZnO lattice, moreover, when the amount of doped Europium was varied, this changes are showed in changes in the luminescence intensity. The PL is broad and a set of colors was emitted which originates from ZnO and the intra 4f transitions of Eu³⁺ ions. The existence of the Zn-O, Eu³⁺-O and O1s bonding energies were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique. The samples morphology was registered by a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) technique, and reveals that Europium ions are present on the surface of the ZnO nanocrystals.

ZnO, Europium Ion, Solution Combustion, Photoluminescence

López-Romero, S. , Quiroz-Jiménez, M. , García, M. and Aguilar-Castillo, A. (2014) Bright Red Luminescence and Structural Properties of Eu³⁺ Ion Doped ZnO by Solution Combustion Technique. World Journal of Condensed Matter Physics, 4, 227-234. doi: 10.4236/wjcmp.2014.44024.