Broadband, site selective and time resolved photoluminescence spectroscopic studies of finely size-modulated Y2O3:Eu3+ phosphors synthesized by a complex based precursor solution method

• Fine size tuning of cubic nano Y2O3:Eu3+ samples synthesized by a complex based precursor solution method.
• Size tunning evidenced by broadening and shift of XRD and Raman scattering peaks.
• No additional phases other than cubic have been detected neither with XRD nor with Raman scattering.
• Electronic Raman scattering evidences the occupation of Eu ions substituting Y ions in S6 sites.
• A progressive distortion of the C2 sites near the nanocrystal surface is evidenced by photoluminescence measurements.

Undoped and Eu3+-doped cubic yttria (Y2O3) nanophosphors of good crystallinity, with selective particle sizes ranging between 6 and 37 nm and showing narrow size distributions, have been synthesized by a complex-based precursor solution method. The systematic size tuning has been evidenced by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Raman scattering measurements. Furthermore, size-modulated properties of Eu3+ ions have been correlated with the local structure of Eu3+ ion in different sized Y2O3:Eu3+ nanophosphors by means of steady-state and time-resolved site-selective laser spectroscopies. Time-resolved site-selective excitation measurements performed in the 7F0 → 5D0 peaks of the Eu3+ ions at C2 sites have allowed us to conclude that Eu3+ ions close to the nanocrystal surface experience a larger crystal field than those in the nanocrystal core. Under the site-selective excitation in the 7F0 → 5D0 peaks, energy transfer between the sites has also been observed.