Sol–gel synthesis and luminescence property of ZnO:(La,Eu)Cl nanocomposite thin films

A kind of ZnO:(La, Eu)Cl nanocomposite thin film phosphor with strong red emission was synthesized by the sol–gel process. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy characterization indicate that the films were composed of nano-sized grains and a LaOCl phase appeared accompanying with (100) oriented ZnO phase after annealed at 600 °C in oxygen. The photoluminescence properties were investigated by measuring the excitation and emission spectra. These luminescence results suggested that Eu3+ ions could incorporate into the LaOCl lattice and charge transfer occurred between LaOCl phase and Eu3+ ions. La co-doping with Eu-Cl leads to the improvement of the red luminescence of Eu3+ and also suppressed the broad green emission of ZnO host.