Luminescence and origin of lead-related centers in single crystalline films of Y2SiO5 and Lu2SiO5

• Emission of lead centers in Y2SiO5 and Lu2SiO5 single crystalline films is studied.
• The ultraviolet emission arises from Pb2+ ions located in Y1 or Lu1 lattice sites.
• Possible hypotheses on the origin of the blue emission are proposed and discussed.
• The relaxed excited states parameters of various Pb-related centers are determined.

In the temperature range 4.2–350 K, the steady-state and time-resolved emission and excitation spectra and luminescence decay kinetics are studied for the undoped Y2SiO5 and Lu2SiO5 single crystalline films grown by liquid phase epitaxy method from the PbO-based flux and, owing to that, containing lead ions substituting for Y3+ or Lu3+ ions. Luminescence characteristics of Pb-related centers of different types are identified. On the basis of the results obtained, we suggest that the ultraviolet emission of Pb-related centers arises from the Pb2+ ions substituting for Y3+ or Lu3+ ions in the Y1 and Lu1 lattice sites of the X2 structure. Possible hypotheses on the origin of the intense complex lead-related blue emission are discussed. We propose phenomenological models describing the excited-state dynamics of the studied luminescence centers. We also determine characteristic parameters of the corresponding relaxed excited states, in particular, the energy separations between the excited states and the rates of the radiative and non-radiative transitions from these states.