Photoluminescence of Y0.6Gd0.4NbO4:Eu3+/Tb3+ micrometric phosphors derived from hybrid precursors

Y0.6Gd0.4NbO4: × Eu3+/Tb3+ mol% phosphors with different dopant concentrations have been synthesized by a modified wet-chemical technology named as in-situ chemical co-precipitation from multicomponent hybrid precursors. Their microstructure, micromorphology and particle sizes have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). Those phosphors present interesting morphology, just like “cobblestone” with about 1.0 μm in dimension. Besides this, the dependence of the Red to Orange (RO) emission for Eu3+ and the Green to Blue (GB) emission for Tb3+ in Y0.6Gd0.4NbO4 host together with other fluorescent properties on the activator concentration has been discussed. It was shown that the RO value of Eu3+ varies much with the doping concentration, but the GB value of Tb3+ almost remains constant.