Effect of the Erbium Concentration in the Luminescent Properties of ZrO2

Abstract

In this work, an analysis of the luminescent properties of zirconium oxide (ZrO₂) doped with Er³⁺ in three different concentrations was performed to investigate which sample could be useful for optoelectronic applications. To achieve it, a set of four samples of ZrO2:Er³⁺ with the variation in Er³⁺ concentration about 0%, 0.1%, 0.2% y 0.3% were synthesized by the sol-gel method. The luminescence measurements for all samples were performed using an excitation wavelength of 380 nm, by this way the upconversion spectrum for the sample containing the 0.2% of Er³⁺ was measured at 980 nm. The luminescence spectra showed three emission bands attributed to the electronic transitions ⁴F_7/2→⁴I_15/2, ²H_11/2→⁴I_15/2, and ²S_3/2→⁴I_15/2, all this band belonged to Er³⁺ radiative transitions, we found that the sample with 0.2% presented a higher emission intensity at 550 nm compared with the others samples, also the average lifetime was calculated, we found that this value decrease with the increment of Er³⁺ concentration, finally, the upconversion spectrum were measured for the sample with higher luminescent intensity at 380 nm, the result revealed that the most probable emission after the photon absorption is that around 550 nm.