Luminescence Studies of CaY2Al4SiO12:Eu3+ Phosphor by Sol–Gel Method

Abstract

A series of CaY₂Al₄SiO₁₂:xEu³⁺ (x = 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.07 and 0.09) phosphors were synthesized by the sol–gel method. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) techniques were used in the study of the crystal structure, surface morphology, and elemental composition of the prepared phosphors. Photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL) properties were also studied. When the CaY₂Al₄SiO₁₂:Eu³⁺ phosphor was excited at 394 nm wavelength, the optimum emission peak centered at 592 nm was found. The calculated CIE coordinates from the PL emission spectra lie in the orange-red region of the visible spectrum. To determine the optimum doping concentration of Eu³⁺ , the variation in the luminescence intensity with different concentrations of Eu³⁺ in the CaY₂Al₄SiO₁₂ host lattice was also studied. To study the TL of the prepared samples, a ⁶⁰Co- γ (gamma) source was used for irradiation and to determine the trapping parameters such as activation energy (E), order of kinetics (b) and frequency factor (s) of the samples, Chen’s peak shape method was used.