Study of t-ZrO2 : Eu3+ nanophosphor obtained by laser vaporisation using a cw CO2 laser

ZrO₂ : Eu³⁺ nanophosphor has been fabricated by vaporisation of a ceramic target of specified composition using a CO₂ laser, with subsequent vapour condensation in an argon flow. Nanoparticles with spherical morphology have been synthesised at a pressure of 0.1 atm. The t-ZrO₂ phase is found to be dominant (98%). According to the transmission electron microscopy data, the nanoparticle size is 10 ± 4 nm. The luminescence properties of fabricated nanoparticles have been studied. It is shown that the strong red luminescence of the samples is mainly due to the bands peaking at 591 and 606 nm, which are related, respectively, to the ⁵D₀ → ⁷F₁ and ⁵D₀ → ⁷F₂ transitions of Eu³⁺ ion in the t-ZrO₂ structure. It is shown also that europium is uniformly distributed over the ZrO₂ matrix during laser synthesis. A comparative study of the t-ZrO₂ : Eu³⁺ nanophosphor and the initial coarse-grained target has been performed. It is concluded that the proposed method of laser vaporisation is promising for synthesising t-ZrO₂-based nanophosphors.