Patterning of YVO₄:Eu³⁺ Luminescent Films by Soft Lithography

Abstract Ordered arrays of luminescent YVO₄:Eu³⁺ films with square (side length 19.17 ± 2.05 μm) and dot (diameter 11.20 ± 1.82 μm) patterns were fabricated by two kinds of soft lithography processes, namely, microtransfer molding (μTM) and microcontact printing (μCP), respectively. Both soft‐lithography processes utilize 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 YVO₄:Eu³⁺ precursor solution was employed as ink. The ordered luminescent YVO₄:Eu³⁺ patterns are revealed by optical micro­scopy and their microstructure, consisting of nanometer‐scale particles, is unveiled by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) observations. Additionally, photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) were carried out to characterize the patterned YVO₄:Eu³⁺ samples. A strong red emission as a result of ⁵D₀–⁷F₂ transition of Eu³⁺ was observed under UV‐light or electron‐beam excitation, which implies that combining soft lithography with a Pechini‐type sol‐gel route has potential for fabricating rare‐earth luminescent pixels for next‐generation field‐emission display devices.