Effect of Er‐doping on the structural and optical properties of Cd2V2O7

Abstract

AbstractThe melt‐quenching method was used to prepare two groups of samples using CdO and V2O5 as starting materials. Taking into account that a crystalline‐amorphous phase transition would be expected for the CdO–V2O5 system, a first batch was prepared varying the proportions of CdO and V2O5 in the intervals 60–95 and 40–5 wt%, respectively. With the aim of investigating the effect of erbium in the phase transition and crystalline quality of the first group of samples, a second batch was fabricated with the same proportions of CdO and V2O5, with the addition of 5 wt% of Er(NO3)5H2O as source of Er3+ ions. It was found that crystalline or amorphous samples could be obtained depending on the relative concentrations of CdO and V2O5, and that the borderline between amorphous and crystalline samples was affected by the incorporation of Er. From X‐ray diffraction, it was possible to identify the formation of the ternary compound Cd2V2O7 in the crystalline cases. The Raman and infrared bands in these samples were in agreement with the lattice modes of Cd2V2O7. Additionally, an improvement in the crystalline quality of Cd2V2O7 was obtained for the Er‐doped samples. The effect of the local environment around the Er3+ ions on the room temperature photoluminescence was also investigated for the amorphous and crystalline samples.