Preparation and photoluminescence investigation of the LaPO4:Eu3+ inverse opal structure.

Abstract

The inverse opal LaPO4:Eu3+ was successfully fabricated by the sol-gel method, and characterized by the scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and photoluminescence investigations. The inverse opal LaPO4:Eu3+ sample has a different emission in comparison with the ordinary luminescence emission bands of Eu3+ ion at 590, 615, and 695 nm. In the inverse opal structure, the strongest emission is the transition 5D0→7F4 at about 695 nm, which may be due to the fact that the emission in the plane decreases because of the photonic band structure and the corresponding emission in the vertical direction increases. For the emissions at 590 and 615 nm of the Eu3+, the results show that the emission ratio of 590 to 615 nm increases from 0.266 to 0.639 for the inverse opal sample in comparison with the ordinary sample, which means that the ratio increases about 2.4 times for the inverse opal sample. An appropriate reason is that in the inverse opal sample the magnetic dipole emission 5D0→7F1 will increase in comparison with the electric dipole emission 5D0→7F2.