Facile patterning of luminescent GdVO4:Ln (Ln = Eu3+, Dy3+, Sm3+) thin films by microcontact printing process

Ordered arrays of luminescent GdVO4:Ln (Ln = Eu3+, Dy3+, Sm3+) films with dot patterns have been successfully fabricated via microcontact printing method. The soft-lithography process utilizes 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 GdVO4:Ln (Ln = Eu3+, Dy3+, Sm3+) precursor solution was employed as ink. The ordered luminescent GdVO4:Ln patterns were revealed by optical microscopy and their microstructure, consisting of nanometer-scale particles, as demonstrated by scanning electronic microscopy observations. In addition, photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence were carried out to characterize the patterned GdVO4:Ln (Ln = Eu3+, Dy3+, Sm3+) samples. Upon UV-light or electron-beam irradiation, the rare earth ions Eu3+, Dy3+, and Sm3+ in the crystalline GdVO4 host show their characteristic transitions dominated by 5D0–7F2, 4F9/2–6H13/2 ,and 4G5/2–6H7/2, respectively. These results make the combining soft lithography with a Pechini-type sol–gel route have potential applications as rare-earth luminescent pixels for next-generation field-emission display devices.