Luminescence studies of europium doped yttrium oxide nano phosphor

Luminescence exhibiting europium doped yttrium oxide (Y2O3:Eu3+) phosphor was prepared by solution combustion method, using disodium ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid (EDTA-Na2) as fuel at ∼350 °C. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) pattern of Y2O3:Eu3+ revealed the cubic crystalline phase. The morphology of the samples was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and was foamy, fluffy and porous in nature. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed prominent absorption with peaks at 3415, 1435, 875 and 565 cm−1. Optical absorption studies showed the energy gap of the synthesized samples to be 5.4–5.5 eV. The photoluminescence (PL) of Y2O3:Eu3+ exhibiting emission peak at 611 nm under the excitation of 254 nm. Thermoluminescence of γ-irradiated Y2O3:Eu3+ showed two well resolved TL glows with peaks at 460 and 610 K and they were analyzed by glow curve shape method and the activation energies were found to be 0.421 eV and 1.016 eV respectively.