Luminescent properties of Gd2Ti2O7: Eu3+ phosphor films prepared by sol–gel process

Gd2Ti2O7: Eu3+ thin film phosphors were fabricated by a sol–gel process. X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra as well as lifetimes were used to characterize the resulting films. The results of XRD indicated that the films began to crystallize at 800 °C and the crystallinity increased with the elevation of annealing temperatures. Uniform and crack free phosphor films were obtained, which mainly consisted of grains with an average size of 70 nm. The doped Eu3+ showed orange–red emission in crystalline Gd2Ti2O7 phosphor films due to an energy transfer from Gd2Ti2O7 host to them. Both the lifetimes and PL intensity of the Eu3+ increased with increasing the annealing temperature from 800 to 1000 °C, and the optimum concentrations for Eu3+ were determined to be 9 at.%. of Gd3+ in Gd2Ti2O7 film host.