Preparation of Europium-Doped Gadolinium Lutetium Oxide Solid Solution Transparent Ceramics and Its Optical Properties

Nanocrystalline Gd_1.1Lu_0.8Eu_0.1O₃ powders were prepared by a combustion method with different fuels such as glycine, citric acid, and urea. The as-prepared particles are of nanoscale size, near-spherical shape, and weak agglomeration. The solid solution transparent ceramics of Gd_1.1Lu_0.8Eu_0.1O₃ were prepared using the powders. The ceramic samples prepared with glycine and citric acid as fuels have much higher optical transmittance than the ceramics with urea, approximately 75%, 70%, and 40% within 500-800 nm wavelength, respectively. Investigation on the microstructure of the ceramics reveals that the low optical transmittance could result from light scattering on grain boundary. The prepared ceramics, excited by ultraviolet light or X-ray, emitted the intense red light, which is ascribed to typical 4f-4f transition luminescence of Eu³⁺.