Orange-Reddish Light Emitting Phosphor GdVO 4 :Sm 3+ Prepared by Solution Combustion Synthesis

The gadolinium vanadate doped with samarium (GdVO 4 :Sm 3+ ) nanopowder was prepared by the solution combustion synthesis (SCS) method. After synthesis, in order to achieve the full crystallinity, the material was annealed in air atmosphere at 900°C. Phase identification in the postannealed powder samples was performed by X-ray diffraction, and morphology was investigated by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Photoluminescence characterization of the emission spectrum and time-resolved analysis have been performed using the tunable laser optical parametric oscillator excitation and the streak camera. Several strong emission bands in the Sm 3+ emission spectrum were observed, located at 567 nm ( 4 G 5/2 – 6 H 5/2 ), 604 nm ( 4 G 5/2 – 6 H 7/2 ), and 646 (654) nm ( 4 G 5/2 – 6 H 9/2 ), respectively. The weak emission bands at 533 nm ( 4 F 3/2 – 6 H 5/2 ) and 706 nm ( 4 G 5/2 – 6 H 11/2 ) and a weak broad luminescence emission band of VO 4 3− were also observed by the detection system. We analyzed the possibility of using the host luminescence for two-color temperature sensing. The proposed method is improved by introducing the temporal dependence in the line intensity ratio measurements.