Patterning of YVO4:Eu3+ Luminescent Films by Soft Lithography

Ordered arrays of luminescent YVO4:Eu3+ films with square (side length 19.17 +/- 2.05 mu m) and dot (diameter 11.20 +/- 1.82 mu m) patterns were fabricated by two kinds of soft lithography processes, namely, microtransfer molding (mu TM) and microcontact printing (mu CP), respectively. Both soft-lithography processes utilize a PDMS elastomeric mold as the stamp combined with a Pechini-type sol-gel process to produce luminescent patterns on quartz plates, in which a YVO4:Eu3+ precursor solution was employed as ink. The ordered luminescent YVO4:Eu3+ patterns are revealed by optical microscopy and their microstructure, consisting of nanometer-scale particles, is unveiled by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) observations. Additionally, photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) were carried out to characterize the patterned YVO4:Eu3+ samples. A strong red emission as a result of D-5(0)-F-7(2) transition of Eu3+ was observed under UV-light or electron-beam excitation, which implies that combining soft lithography with a Pechini-type sol-gel route has potential for fabricating rare-earth luminescent pixels for next-generation field-emission display devices.