Synthesis and Characterization of Rare Earth doped YAG Nanopowders via Combustion Synthesis

Abstract

Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) powder doped with rare earth (RE) ions (RE= Ce 3+ , Eu 3+ , Nd 3+ and Pr 3+ ) were prepared via combustion synthesis at relatively low temperature. The combustion synthesis involves the reaction of aluminum nitrate (Al(NO 3 ) 3 ), yttrium nitrate (Y(NO 3 ) 3 ) and the rare earth ion nitrates (RE(NO 3 ) 3 ) with carbohydrazide (CO(N 2 H 3 ) 2 ) as fuel. Assynthesized YAG:RE powder samples were amorphous or nano-crystalline however, after annealing at 1000 o C temperature throughout one hour their reached a cubic perovskite type structure. The PL spectra of YAG:RE powders synthesized in this work confirmed the incorporation of RE ions in the YAG host lattice. This research showed that the Combustion Synthesis is a low-cost and rapid method to produce high quality YAG:RE powders.