Fascinating functional properties of Mn:Gd2O3 nanocrystalline phosphor

In the present work we through the light on some of the fascinating structural, magnetic and optical properties of Mn:Gd2O3 nanophosphor. Manganese substituted nanocrystalline Mn:Gd2O3 was prepared via a sol gel procedure. The prepared samples were characterized applying X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (IR), squid magnometer and photoluminance (PL). XRD and IR analysis revealed a single phase solid solution up to x = 0.2. The cation distribution of Mn and Gd between the crystallographically non-equivalent sites 8b and 24d of the space group lag is found to be preferentially for all samples. The lattice parameter decreases with composition x, accompanied with systematic variation in the r.m.s. microstrain <epsilon(2)(L)>(1/2). The magnetic measurement showed negative values for curie paramagnetic temperatures, theta, which indicates an antiferromagnetic interaction between the magnetic ions in Mn:Gd2O3. PL spectra showed a series of emission lines in the room temperature fluorescence measurements under UV excitation (220 nm). The observed emission lines are stokes-shifted and the non-linearity optical phenomenon is confirmed. Further, the emission lines are slightly shifted with Mn concentration (x). The blue emission around (390-402) nm was appeared due to Mn doping. Because of its fascinating properties, Mn:Gd2O3 is recommended for fuel cells, photocatalytic, and biomedical applications. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.