Structure and spectral-luminescent properties of Er³⁺:ZnO optical ceramics

Abstract

Transparent zinc oxide ceramics, undoped and doped with 0.1-2.0 wt% Er3+ ions were fabricated by uniaxial hot pressing of commercial oxide powders. The ceramics were characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM, EDX, Raman, X-ray and optical spectroscopy. The analysis of morphology of Er3+:ZnO ceramics reveals that the main components of texture are hexagonal prism planes similar to those for undoped ceramic. The ZnO grain size decreases with addition of Er2O3. The Er3+ ions are distributed between the ZnO grains and the Er2O3 crystals and do not enter the zinc oxide structure. The luminescence spectra of Er3+:ZnO ceramics contain emission bands originating from the intra-4f shell transitions of Er3+ ions and bands assigned to defect states at ZnO. The X-ray luminescence spectra indicate the possible energy-transfer between the ZnO grains and Er3+ ions. The defect luminescence band becomes weaker and the X-ray luminescence decay time decreases as the erbium concentration is increased.

Zinc Oxide Optical Ceramic Codoped with Er3+ and Yb3+ Ions

“…2(c). Note that it is about 65 ns for undoped ZnO ceramic [2], indicating the ZnO → RE 3 + energy transfer. Under optical excitation at 488 nm, the photoluminescence spectrum contains emission bands assigned to Er 3+ ions in RE 2 O 3 crystals, Fig.…”

“…ZnO optical ceramic codoped with 0.6 wt% Er and 0.8 wt% Yb was prepared by uniaxial hot pressing of ZnO, Er 2 O 3 and Yb 2 O 3 commercial powders at 1180 °C in vacuum [2]. The ceramic disk (Ф25 mm, thickness: 0.5 mm) had grey coloration, Fig.…”

Photoluminescent neodymium-doped ZnO nanocrystals prepared by laser ablation in solution for NIR-II fluorescence bioimaging

“…To date, preparation of the doped ZnO NPs has received much attention [ 12 , 13 ], but most of the works is aimed to fabricate NPs exhibiting luminescence in the visible spectral region. It is expected that ZnO nanocrystals doped with lanthanide ions will form a photoluminescent material in the near infrared region of 800–1400 nm (NIR) [ 14 , 15 ]. In particular, ZnO nanocrystals doped with neodymium ions, which have several important luminescent bands in the NIR region, including the transitions 4 F 3/2 → 4 I 9/2 (at ∼ 900 nm), 4 F 3/2 → 4 I 11/2 (1060 nm) and 4 F 3/2 → 4 I 13/2 (1340 nm) [ 16 ], are of interest for applications as luminescent biomarkers, as maximal light transmission of biological tissues is reported to be in the 850–1100 nm region [ 17 ].…”