Electroluminescence from Eu3+ doped Sr2CeO4 nanocrystalline thin films

Red light emission produced by electroluminescence has been obtained from Sr2CeO4:Eu nanocrystalline thin films. The emission was achieved by fabricating a thin film electroluminescent device (TFEL) that consisted of a multiple layer heterostructure formed by a top transparent electrode, emitting layer, dielectric sheet and metallic back electrode. In this TFEL device, the Sr2CeO4:Eu emitting film was grown on polished BaTiO3 dielectric substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) with the ablation target made of 10 mol% Eu doped Sr2CeO4 luminescent powders. PLD was also used to deposit the transparent electrode using a commercial ITO ablation target. The back electrode was screen-printed using silver epoxy paste. The system showed characteristic line emissions of Eu3+ intrashell transitions being the 5D0 → 7F2 the stronger (at 610 nm). CIE chromaticity coordinates are x = 0.639 and y = 0.360. Electro-optical measurements showed a threshold voltage at 150 V with the maximum efficiency of ∼16 × 10−3 lm/W at 300 V.