Crystalline phase and spectroscopic properties of copper-containing borophosphate ceramic doped with samarium oxide

Abstract

A study had successfully been conducted to determine the effects of samarium addition on the crystalline phase and spectroscopic properties of coppercontaining borophosphate ceramics with nominal composition of 10CuO 30B2O3 (60 )P2O5 Sm2O3, where 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 mol% prepared by solid state reaction. The ceramic samples had been measured by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer (FTIR), ultraviolet-visible spectrometer (UV-Vis-NIR) and photoluminescence spectrophotometer (PL). All ceramic samples are found to be single crystalline of boron phosphate (BPO4) regardless to the Sm2O3 concentration used. Diffraction peak intensities, average crystallite size and lattice parameters are found to fluctuate due to the addition of Sm2O3. FTIR spectra showed that the addition of Sm2O3 to the current ceramic host has no influence to the structure features or band positions, only band intensities are observed to increase. UV-Vis-NIR spectra of Sm2O3 doped ceramic samples recorded five absorption peaks where the peaks’ intensities increasing with increasing concentration of Sm2O3. Both the direct and indirect band gaps decrease gradually with the increase in Sm2O3 concentration while the Urbach’s energy shows inverse trend. The luminescence spectra for Sm2O3 doped ceramic samples at the excitation wavelength of 401 nm revealed three emission peaks at 560 nm (4G5/2⟶ 6H5/2), 600 nm (4G5/2⟶ 6H7/2) and 670 nm (4G5/2⟶ 6H9/2). The peak at 600 nm which attributed to the orange emission is found to be most prominent for all of the ceramic samples and this peak is found to be shifted slightly during the addition of Sm2O3. Quenching effect is identified for the ceramic host doped with 1.5 mol% of Sm2O3. Therefore, Sm2O3 at 1.0 mol% of doping is the maximum doping concentration to the current ceramic sample and the good correlation between the doping and host system suggested it to be used for developing orange LED and fluorescent display devices.