Crystalline morphology and photoluminescent properties of YInGe2O7:Eu3+ phosphors prepared from microwave and conventional sintering

This paper describes an investigation of the crystalline morphology and photoluminescent properties of YInGe2O7:Eu3+ powders using microwave assisted sintering. For comparison, the properties of YInGe2O7:Eu3+ powders sintered at 1200 °C in conventional furnace for 10 h were also investigated. X-ray powder diffraction analysis confirmed the formation of monoclinic YInGe2O7 without second phase or phases of starting materials as YInGe2O7:50 mol% Eu powders sintered at 1200 °C in microwave furnace for 1 h. Scanning electron microscopy showed smaller particle size and more uniform grain size distributions are obtained by microwave assisted sintering. In the PL studies, both microwave sintered and conventionally sintered powders emitted a maximum luminescence centered at 620 nm under excitation of 393 nm with similar luminescent intensity. The results show that microwave processing has the potential to reduce the time and required energy input for the production of YInGe2O7:Eu3+ phosphors without sacrificing the photoluminescence.