Luminescence in Anodic ZrO 2 Doped with Eu(III)ions F. Trivinho-Strixino 1 , F. E. G. Guimara ˜ es 2 , and E. C. Pereira 1 1 NANOFAEL, LIEC, Universidade Federal de Sa ˜o Carlos, Sa ˜ o Carlos, 5 SP, Brazil 2 Universidade Estadual de Sa ˜o Paulo, Instituto de Fı ´sica de Sa ˜ o Carlos, Grupo de Semicondutores, Sa ˜ o Carlos, SP, Brazil Photoluminescence and structure properties of anodically prepared ZrO 2 oxide films doped with Europium (III) ions were investigated. Microstructural analysis 10 reveals that the predominant crystallographic structure is the monoclinic phase with small quantities of tetragonal and cubic phases. Important crystallite size and isotropic strain are observed for the monoclinic phase and they are related to the incorporation of Europium (III) ions inside the oxide matrix. The photolumi- nescence spectrum reveals a broad emission band in the range between 15 350–650 nm related to the ZrO 2 . Emission lines corresponding to transitions from the lowest emitting 5 D 0 level of Eu(III) to several sublevels of the ground state level 7 F 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 were also observed. Keywords: anodic doping; anodic zirconium oxide; europium; photoluminescence; rare-earth 20 INTRODUCTION Zirconium oxide is known to have excellent technological properties such as chemical and thermal stability, mechanical strength and wear resistance as well as its good ion-exchange properties [1,2]. Due to the high oxygen conductivity of the cubic ZrO 2 , it has been applied in high 25 temperature solid oxide fuel cells and as industrial catalyst oxygen sensors [3,4]. This material is also present on the surface of nuclear fuel rods [1,5]. Besides its well known ceramic properties, mentioned The authors are grateful to FAPESP and CNPq for the financial support. Address correspondence to Ernesto Pereira, NANOFAEL, LIEC, Universidade Federal de Sa ˜o Carlos (DQ-UFSCar), Cx.P.: 676, Sa ˜ o Carlos, SP, 13565-905, Brazil. E-mail: decp@power.ufscar.br Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst., Vol. 485, pp. 18=[766]–27=[775], 2008 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1542-1406 print=1563-5287 online DOI: 10.1080/15421400801913444 18=[766] 3b2 Version Number : 7.51c/W (Jun 11 2001) File path : p:/Santype/Journals/Taylor&Francis/Gmcl/v485n1/gmcl291510/gmcl291510.3d Date and Time : 10/3/08 and 17:53