Photoluminescence and thermoluminescence behavior of Gd doped Y2O3 phosphor

The present paper reports the synthesis and characterization photoluminescence and thermoluminescence studies of Gd3+ doped Y2O3 phosphors. The effect of variable concentration of europium on photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL) behavior are also studied. The samples were prepared by solid state synthesis technique which is suitable for large scale production of phosphors. The starting materials used for sample preparation are ZrO2 and Gd2O3 and CaF2 used as a flux. The prepared sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD). The surface morphology of prepared phosphor was determined by field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEGSEM) technique. The diffraction pattern was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with selected area diffraction pattern. All prepared phosphor with variable concentration of Gd3+ (0.2–2 mol%) was studied by photoluminescence analysis it is found that the excitation spectra of prepared phosphor shows broad excitation centered at 249 and 254 nm with few shoulder weak peaks at 275, 308 and 315 nm. The excitation spectra with variable concentration of Gd3+ show strong peaks at 613 nm for 254 nm excitation. For 275 nm excitation strong peaks found at 468, 567, 578 and 608 nm. For recording TL glow curve every time 2 mg phosphor was irradiated by UV 254 nm source and fixed the heating rate at 6.7 °C s−1. Sample shows well resolved peak at 97 °C for 2 mol% of Gd3+. Trapping parameters are calculated for every recorded glow curve.