https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-023-04081-3
Regular Article
Temperature-dependent vacuum ultraviolet photoluminescence spectroscopy of transition metal and rare earth co-doped ZnO phosphors: a synchrotron-based investigation
1
Department of Physics, Guru Nanak Dev University, 143005, Amritsar, Punjab, India
2
Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Panjab University, Block-II, Sector-25, 160014, Chandigarh, India
3
Department of Computer Science, Guru Nanak Dev University, 143005, Amritsar, Punjab, India
4
Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, 110067, New Delhi, India
5
Department of Physics and Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) Dehradun, 248007, Uttarakhand, India
a puneet.phy@gmail.com, puneetphy.rsh@gndu.ac.in
Received:
17
February
2023
Accepted:
10
May
2023
Published online:
27
May
2023
The synchrotron-based vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emission spectra of (Fe, Sm) co-doped ZnO phosphors exhibit broad emission in the visible-near infrared region in the temperature range of 10–300 K. These emission spectra are due to the deep defect levels in the host ZnO. Upon codoping of Fe and Sm ions, an efficient energy transfer (ET) from ZnO to Sm3+ via Fe2+/Fe3+ states occurs. A mechanism explaining the ET resulting due to the involvement of additional energy levels corresponding to Fe2+/Fe3+ and Sm3+ ions is proposed. The probability of phonon-assisted non-radiative transitions increases at elevated temperatures. In the case of Zn0.997Sm0.025Fe0.005O, the CIE color coordinates shift from orange to blue to white at low temperature with an acceptable Color Rendering Index and Color Quality Scale values, under the VUV excitations. The broadening of emission spectra due to strong electron–phonon coupling at high-temperature resulting in high CRI and CQS values reveals that (Fe, Sm) co-doped ZnO phosphors are suitable materials to use in the detection of space events, plasma display devices, field emission displays, etc.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
