Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2019) 134: 177
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2019-12613-3

Regular Article

Structural and optical studies of CaSO₄:Ce³⁺ nanorods for display and dosimetric applications

¹ Department of Physics, B.M.S. Institute of Technology and Management, 560 064, Bangalore, India
² Department of Physics, R.N.S Institute of Technology, 560 098, Bangalore, India

^* e-mail: ndhananjayas@bmsit.in

Received: 15 April 2018
Accepted: 4 March 2019
Published online: 26 April 2019

Abstract

The CaSO₄:Ce³⁺ (1-9mol%) nanorods were successfully synthesized by co-precipitation method. Preliminary crystallographic, structural and optical studies of the prepared nanorods were done using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL). The CaSO₄:Ce³⁺ has a single phase hexagonal lattice structure with space group P3₁21(152). The average crystallite size was calculated using Scherrer’s formula and found to be in the range 41-62 nm which is in good agreement with TEM results. The SEM micrographs shows rod like structure with various sizes. Upon 350 nm excitation, the CaSO₄:Ce³⁺ nanophosphor showed emission at 390, 405 and 430 nm, which is characteristic luminescence of (²F_5/2, ²F_7/2) transitions of the Ce³⁺ ions. The chromaticity co-ordinates and correlated color temperature of all the phosphors were well located in blue region. TL glow curve response of the prepared nanorods with 500 Gy -irradiated was studied. TL glow curve contains glow peak at 188 ^°C. Kinetic parameters was estimated for deconvoluted TL glow peaks and studied in detail.