Bright Red Luminescence and Structural Properties of Eu³⁺ Ion Doped ZnO by Solution Combustion Technique

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.

DOI: 10.4236/wjcmp.2014.44024                

Abstract

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.

Keywords

ZnO, Europium Ion, Solution Combustion, Photoluminescence

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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