Structural and luminescence properties of SrGd2O4 nanocrystalline phosphor doped with Dy3+ and Sm3+

In this manuscript, down-conversion nanopowders of SrGd2O4 doped with different concentrations of either Dy3+ or Sm3+ ions were examined in detail. All samples were prepared via glycine-assisted combustion method, primarily burned at 500?C for 1.5 h and additionally calcined at 1000?C for 2 h, at ambient room temperature. The XRD analysis showed that all samples crystallize as single phase and the orthorhombic lattice SrGd2O4. TEM analysis determined high degree of crystallinity of samples with grain size of approximately 200 nm for Dy3+ doped and 150 nm for Sm3+ doped SrGd2O4. For both samples SAED confirmed that diffraction rings correspond to the hkl plane indices of SrGd2O4, while EDS confirmed presence of Dy in crystal structure. Results of luminescent characterization demonstrated all appropriate emission peaks related to either Dy3+ or Sm3+ dopant ions. Investigation of dopant concentration revealed that the lowest values of both dopants have the most prominent emission peaks, while coordinates obtained from the CIE diagram showed emission shifting with the change of concentration.