Optical studies of ZnO nanocrystals doped with Eu3+ ions

authors	Peres, M; Cruz, A; Pereira, S; Correia, MR; Soares, MJ; Neves, A; Carmo, MC; Monteiro, T; Pereira, AS; Martins, MA; Trindade, T; Alves, E; Nobre, SS; Ferreira, RAS
nationality	International
journal	APPLIED PHYSICS A-MATERIALS SCIENCE & PROCESSING
keywords	IMPLANTED GAN; QUANTUM DOTS; THIN-FILMS; PHOTOLUMINESCENCE; SAMPLES; GREEN; LUMINESCENCE
abstract	Synthetic ZnO nanocrystals have been intentionally doped with Eu3+ ions. Structural analysis performed on the nanocrystals showed wurtzite-ZnO as the only phase present in the samples. Photoluminescence in emission and excitation modes allows the assignment of the intra-4f(6) transitions for the Eu3+ ions. From the analysis of the optical data we are able to demonstrate that multiple Eu-related optical centres are present in the studied samples. Oxygen vacancies are likely candidates to be responsible for the ion accommodation in the ZnO lattice and from the photoluminescence excitation data we tentatively assign a trap level at similar to 200 meV below the conduction band to this intrinsic defect.
publisher	SPRINGER
issn	0947-8396
year published	2007
volume	88
issue	1
beginning page	129
ending page	133
digital object identifier (doi)	10.1007/s00339-007-3941-9
web of science category	Materials Science, Multidisciplinary; Physics, Applied
subject category	Materials Science; Physics
unique article identifier	WOS:000246561200024