Optical and structural properties of europium doped Y–Al–O compounds grown by microwave driven hydrothermal technique

Perovskites, garnets, monoclinic forms, and lately also oxyhydroxides doped with rare-earth ions have been drawn large attention due to their beneficial optical and photovoltaic properties. In this work, we have shown that several forms of crystals from Y–Al–O family can be synthesized using microwave driven hydrothermal technique using different pH and post-growth annealing at different temperatures. The structural and optical properties of these crystals were investigated as a function of hydrothermal crystallization conditions. For this purpose, x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence, and photoluminescence excitation studies were performed. All the structures have been doped with Eu3+ ions which are known as a local symmetry sensor because various symmetries generate different crystal fields and thus affect their luminescence spectra. The optical properties of the obtained nanoparticles in correlation with their structure and chemical composition are discussed.