Preparation, structure and luminescence properties of nanocrystalline Eu:Gd3Sc2Ga3O12

Eu:Gd3Sc2Ga3O12 powder was synthesized by co-precipitation method with metal Ga, Eu2O3, Gd2O3, Sc2O3 as starting materials and aqueous ammonia as precipitator. X-ray diffraction (XRD), the Rietveld refinement method and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were employed to study the crystal structure. The fluorescent spectra and decay curves were used to investigate the luminescence properties of the resulting powders. The XRD spectra and results of the Rietveld refinement indicated that the structure of Gd3Sc2Ga3O12 hardly changed and only crystal lattice distorted a little when Eu3+ ion was doped. The transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation and XRD line broadening calculation revealed that the particle size of Eu:Gd3Sc2Ga3O12 powder increased with the increase of the calcination temperature. At the same time, the emission intensity and lifetime of Eu:Gd3Sc2Ga3O12 powder also increased with the calcination temperature. In the emission spectra, a 590 nm orange line from 5D0 → 7F1 as the most prominent group meaned that Eu3+ ion mainly occupied the inversion center in Gd3Sc2Ga3O12 crystal which may be caused by a small number of Gd atoms entered the 16(a) site.