Luminescence and structural properties of Gd 2 SiO 5 :Eu 3+ phosphors synthesized from the modified solid state method

Abstract

Abstract This paper reports the preparation of Eu 3+ doped Gadolinium oxyorthosilicate (Gd 2 SiO 5 :Eu 3+ ) phosphor with different concentration of Eu 3+ (0.1–2.5 mol%) using the modified solid state reaction method. The synthesis procedure of the Gd 2 SiO 5 :Eu 3+ phosphor using inorganic materials such as Gd 2 O 3 , silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ), europium oxide (Eu 2 O 3 ) and boric acid (H 3 BO 3 ) as flux is discussed in detail. The prepared phosphor samples were characterized by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopy (FEGSEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Photoluminescence (PL) and Thermoluminescence (TL). The Commission Internationale de l′Eclairage(CIE) coordinates were also calculated. The PL emission was observed in the 350–630 nm range for the Gd 2 SiO 5 :Eu 3+ phosphor. PL excitation peaks were observed at 266, 275, 312 and 395 nm while the emission peaks were observed at 380, 416, 437, 545, 579, 589, 607, 615 and 628 nm. The emission peak at 615 nm was the most intense peak for all the different Eu 3+ concentration samples. From the XRD data, using the Scherrer's formula, the average crystallite size of the Gd 2 SiO 5 :Eu 3+ phosphor was calculated to be 33 nm. TL was carried out for the phosphor after both UV and gamma irradiation. The TL response of the Gd 2 SiO 5 :Eu 3+ phosphor for the two different radiations was compared and studied in detail. It was found that the present phosphor can acts as a single host for red emission (1.5 mol%) for display devices and light emitting diode (LED) and white light emission for Eu 3+ (0.1 mol%) and it might be used as a TL dosimetric material for gamma dose detection.