Spectroscopic and Luminescence studies of CeO2 nanophosphors doped with rare earth and transition metal ions

Abstract

newline Rare earth oxides have considered being one of the best host materials for luminescent centers due to their excellent chemical and thermal stability when mixed with rare earth (RE) ions, become excellent luminescence in the blue, green and red regions of the spectrum. Further, they have stable crystal structure, high physical and chemical stability, good formability, long persistence, easy preparation, multicolor phosphorescence and resistance to acid, alkali and oxygen. Recent research on luminescent nanomaterials provide challenges to both fundamental and advanced development of technologies in various areas such as electronics, photonics, display, lasing, detection, optical amplification, fluorescent sensing in biomedical engineering and environmental control.Nanophosphors may have a number of potential advantages over traditional micron-sized phosphors. Such nanosized phosphor particles were reported to be somewhat different in their electrical, optical and structural characteristics. It was reported that these differences in electrical and optical characteristics of very small particles were caused by quantum effects due to their high surface to volume ratio, which increases the band gap by reduction of the number of allowable quantum states in the small particles and improves surface and interfacial effects. In addition, quantum confinement in nanocrystalline materials may result in an enhancement of their luminescence.