Luminescent spectroscopy and structural properties of Ce3+-doped low-temperature X1-Y2SiO5 material prepared by polymer-assisted sol-gel method

Cerium (Ce3+)-doped monoclinic X-1-Y2SiO5 (YSO)-type oxyorthosilicates powders were prepared by monomer and polymer-assisted sol-gel method. The present work aims to study the influence of ethylene glycol (EG) monomer, polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymer and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) polymer, as fuels and nucleating agents for the crystallization, on structural and luminescence properties of the Ce3+ (xCe = 0.01)-doped Y2SiO5. The X-ray diffraction technique, field emission scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and steady photoluminescence have been used to characterize the samples. It is found that the types of fuels affect the phase purity and luminescent characteristics of phosphors. All samples exhibit intense violet-blue asymmetric emission band in the range of 370-540 nm with a maximum intensity centered at around 420 nm assigned to the 5d -> 4f (2F5/2, 2F7/2) interconfigurational transitions of Ce3+ ion in YSO nanomaterial. Finally, the vibronic coupling parameters are estimated and discussed.