Structural and luminescence properties of Eu3+ doped BaxSr1−xTiO3 (BST) nanocrystalline powders prepared by different methods

Abstract Eu3+ doped BaxSr1−xTiO3 (BST) nanocrystalline powders have been prepared using molten salts, sol–gel and hydrothermal techniques in order to compare their structural and luminescence properties. The sizes of the particles are around 50 nm for the BST powders obtained by the sol–gel and hydrothermal methods while they are around 400 nm for the samples prepared by the molten salts method. The Eu3+ doped BST samples show strong emission in the visible range. The luminescence spectra of the Eu3+ ions for the investigated samples depend strongly upon the preparation method. The luminescence bands are affected by a notable amount of inhomogeneous broadening. The broadening of the emission bands and the non-exponential behavior of the emission decay curves point to the presence of significant structural disorder.