The effect of different substrate temperatures on the structure and luminescence properties of Y2O3:Bi3+ thin films

•Y2O3:Bi3+ thin films were successfully prepared by the pulsed laser deposition.•The effect of the substrate temperature on the PL properties were investigated.•The PL increased when crystallinity improved from amorphous to monoclinic and cubic.•The monoclinic structure showed a shift in the PL emission to a lower wavelength.•A decrease in the surface roughness that resulted in an increase in the PL intensities.

Y2O3:Bi3+ phosphor thin films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition in the presence of oxygen (O2) gas. The microstructure and photoluminescence (PL) of these films were found to be highly dependent on the substrate temperature. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the Y2O3:Bi3+ films transformed from amorphous to cubic and monoclinic phases when the substrate temperature was increased up to 600 °C. At the higher substrate temperature of 600 °C, the cubic phase became dominant. The crystallinity of the thin films, therefore, increased with increasing substrate temperatures. Surface morphology results obtained by atomic force microscopy showed a decrease in the surface roughness with an increase in substrate temperature. The increase in the PL intensities was attributed to the crystallinity improvement and surface roughness decrease. The main PL emission peak position of the thin films prepared at substrate temperatures of 450 °C and 600 °C showed a shift to shorter wavelengths of 460 and 480 nm respectively, if compared to the main PL peak position of the powder at 495 nm. The shift was attributed to a different Bi3+ ion environment in the monoclinic and cubic phases.

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