Preparation and characterization of thulium doped yttrium oxide (Tm:Y2O3) powders

In the presented work 2 at% thulium doped yttrium oxide precursor powders were synthesized by the co-precipitation method using ammonium bicarbonate as a precipitation agent. The main aim of this work was to investigate the influence of co-precipitation parameters such as the process temperature (25°C-70 °C) and molar concentration of reagents on the morphology and luminescence properties of Tm:Y2O3. The lowest average particle size of about 20 nm and the highest value of the specific surface of 55.2 m2/g were obtained for powder co-precipitated at a temperature of 70 °C at a molar concentration of 0.1 M for thulium and yttrium nitrate. The emission spectra of the outcome powders were measured and compared and fluorescence dynamics behavior was presented and discussed.