Electrical and luminescence properties, and energy band structure of SrBi2-Er Nb2O9 multifunctional ceramics

Abstract SrBi2-xErxNb2O9 (x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, abbreviated as SBN-xEr) multifunctional ceramics were prepared by solid-phase reaction method. Thermal annealing behavior shows that SBN-xEr ceramics have stable piezoelectric properties. For sample with x = 0.06, the piezoelectric constant d33 at 400 °C close to its Curie temperature retains 80% of its room temperature d33 value. Considering the luminescence characteristic of Er3+ ions, samples possess bright up-conversion photoluminescence performance with the strong green emission band at 550 nm and the weak red emission band at 670 nm under 980 nm laser source. Moreover, the electronic band structure of SBN-xEr ceramics was calculated using first principles. It is found that Er3+ doping causes the conduction band of samples to pass through the Fermi level and the valence band to be away from the Fermi level. The results suggest that SBN-xEr ceramics have good prospects in future luminescence and piezoelectric properties integrated devices.