Optical properties of nanostructured ZnO:Eu film by sol–gel method

ABSTRACT

ZnO:Eu film has been deposited and grown on glass substrates by spin coating technique followed by water bath treatment. The precursors were synthesised by a sol–gel method and all of the film annealed at 450°C for 1 h. The structure, morphology and optical properties of ZnO films doped with different Eu concentrations in precursor were investigated. Eu doping concentrations have a great influence on the crystallinity, morphology, size and optical properties of films. The EDX analysis proves the presence of Eu elements in the synthesised film. The film has optical transparency in the visible range. Where Eu doping concentration was 5%, the film emits a strong near-ultraviolet emission at 325 nm laser excitation. All of the film had a very strong blue emission at 421 and 439 nm under 397 nm excitation.

KEYWORDS:

• Eu-doped ZnO
• thin films
• sol–gel
• Nanostructure
• optical properties
• photoluminescence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Dalian Nationalities University [grant number DCPY2016010]; Dalian Nationalities University [grant number 20116201].