Photoluminescence of YVO4:Tm phosphor prepared by a polymerizable complex method

This paper reports the photoluminescence (PL) properties of nanocrystalline YVO4: Tm phosphor synthesized by the polymerizable complex method based on the Pechini-type reaction. The powder was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), absorption spectroscopy and PL. The results of XRD and TEM show that, high-quality nanopowders with controlled morphology and microstructure were prepared at a relatively low temperature about 700 °C. Upon ultra violet excitation the vanadate host transferred energy to thulium ions efficiently and strong blue emission (475 nm) assigned to 1G4→3H6 transmission is observed. By analyzing excitation and emission spectra of thulium doped yttrium vanadate, we deduced the mechanism of the energy transfer between vanadate host and thulium ions.