Compositional dependence of optical properties of Sm3+-doped Y3ScxAl5-xO12 polycrystalline ceramics

• Investigation of Sm3+ doped Y3ScxAl5-xO12 polycrystalline ceramics as phosphors or laser material.
• Absorption and emission spectra of Sm-doped Y3ScxAl5-xO12 (x = 0.05 ÷ 2) were performed.
• Partial energy levels for Sm3+ in Y3Sc2Al3O12 were determined.
• The 4G5/2 luminescence lifetime increase with the increasing of Sc3+ content.

Disordered Sm3+ doped Y3ScxAl5-xO12 (Sm:YSxAG) polycrystalline ceramics with compositional parameter x = (0.05, 0.5, 1, 2) and different Sm3+ ions concentrations were obtained by solid state reaction method. XRD investigations show the linear increase of the lattice constant with compositional parameters x. New spectroscopic data obtained from high resolution optical absorption and emission spectra of Sm3+ doped YSxAG ceramics reveal composition effects on Sm3+ optical spectra: modification of the shapes and shifts of the lines, presence of the additional satellites and unresolved multicenter structure, etc. The analysis of these data allowed us to establish a partial structure of Sm3+ energy levels in Sm:YSxAG (x = 2) ceramics. The emission kinetics of the 4G5/2 level for different Sm3+ concentrations and Sc content in Sm:YSxAG were measured and analyzed.