Please cite this article in press as: V. Dubey, et al., Photoluminescence and thermoluminescence behavior of Gd doped Y 2 O 3 phosphor, Optik - Int. J. Light Electron Opt. (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2014.06.175 ARTICLE IN PRESS G Model IJLEO-55166; No. of Pages 5 Optik xxx (2014) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Optik jo ur nal homepage: www.elsevier.de/ijleo Photoluminescence and thermoluminescence behavior of Gd doped Y 2 O 3 phosphor Vikas Dubey a,b,∗ , Sadhana Agrawal b , Jagjeet Kaur c a Department of Physics, Bhilai Institute of Technology Raipur, New Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India b Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India c Department of Physics, Government V.Y.T.PG. Autonomous College, Durg, Chhattisgarh 91001, India a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 9 November 2013 Accepted 8 June 2014 Available online xxx Keywords: Photoluminescence Thermoluminescence CIE techniques a b s t r a c t The present paper reports the synthesis and characterization photoluminescence and thermolumi- nescence studies of Gd 3+ doped Y 2 O 3 phosphors. The effect of variable concentration of europium on photoluminescence (PL) and thermoluminescence (TL) behavior are also studied. The samples were pre- pared by solid state synthesis technique which is suitable for large scale production of phosphors. The starting materials used for sample preparation are ZrO 2 and Gd 2 O 3 and CaF 2 used as a flux. The prepared sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD). The surface morphology of prepared phosphor was determined by field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEGSEM) technique. The diffraction pattern was measured by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with selected area diffrac- tion pattern. All prepared phosphor with variable concentration of Gd 3+ (0.2–2 mol%) was studied by photoluminescence analysis it is found that the excitation spectra of prepared phosphor shows broad excitation centered at 249 and 254 nm with few shoulder weak peaks at 275, 308 and 315 nm. The exci- tation spectra with variable concentration of Gd 3+ show strong peaks at 613 nm for 254 nm excitation. For 275 nm excitation strong peaks found at 468, 567, 578 and 608 nm. For recording TL glow curve every time 2 mg phosphor was irradiated by UV 254 nm source and fixed the heating rate at 6.7 ◦ C s −1 . Sam- ple shows well resolved peak at 97 ◦ C for 2 mol% of Gd 3+ . Trapping parameters are calculated for every recorded glow curve. © 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Since a short-wavelength UV light of mercury vapour plasma is commonly used as an excitation source in most commercially avail- able lamps, the optimization of luminescence quantum efficiency of phosphors is required for the 254 nm excitation in the fluorescent light products [1]. Nevertheless, the disposing of the used vapour junk causes environmental contamination. Recent investigation on deep violet light-emitting devices and lasers quite possibly pro- vides an alternative excitation in the range of 340–400 nm [2–8]. Yttrium sesquioxide (Y 2 O 3 ) ceramics have been intensively inves- tigated for different technological purposes. For decades, yttrium oxide has been an important material in the ceramic industry, from being a constituent of ceramic super-conductors [9], to well-known YSZ ceramics [10]. Y 2 O 3 is used in electronic applications as a part ∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Physics, Bhilai Institute of Technology Raipur, New Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. Tel.: +91 09826937919. E-mail address: jsvikasdubey@gmail.com (V. Dubey). of metal–oxide–semiconductor hetero structures in Metal Oxide Semiconductor (MOS) transistors [11]. It also plays an important role in the preparation of novel light-emitting materials [12,13]. Host materials with a wide band gap are attractive for optical appli- cations in the visible and UV spectral ranges [14,15], because the rare earths can emit within its optical window and do not suffer of quenching effects inherent to semiconductor hosts [16,17]. The present paper reports the synthesis of Y 2 O 3 phosphor with variable concentration of gadolinium (0.2–2 mol%). All samples was prepared by solid state reaction techniques and characterized by XRD, FEGSEM, TEM, PL and TL studies. The particle size of prepared phosphor was calculated by Scherer’s formula. The average particle size of prepared phosphors found in the range 70–100 nm. All sam- ple shows cubic structure of Y 2 O 3 . There is no impurity phase found due to the concentration of gadolinium. FEGSEM study shows the surface morphology of prepared phosphor. The obtained sample shows an intense blue, greenish and red-white emission (ranging from 400 to 650 nm), under a wide range of UV light excitation (220–400 nm). The PL spectra recorded for different concentration of gadolinium. The PL emission intensity increases with increasing http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2014.06.175 0030-4026/© 2014 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.