Study of energy transfer mechanism from ZnO nanocrystals to Eu3+ ions

In this work, we investigate the efficient energy transfer occurring between ZnO nanocrystals (ZnO-nc) and europium (Eu3+) ions embedded in a SiO2 matrix prepared using the sol-gel technique. We show that a strong red emission was observed at 614 nm when the ZnO-nc were excited using a continuous optical excitation at 325 nm. This emission is due to the radiative 5D0 → 7F2 de-excitation of the Eu3+ ions and has been conclusively shown to be due to the energy transfer from the excited ZnO-nc to the Eu3+ ions. The photoluminescence excitation spectra are also examined in this work to confirm the energy transfer from ZnO-nc to the Eu3+ ions. Furthermore, we study various de-excitation processes from the excited ZnO-nc and their contribution to the energy transfer to Eu3+ ions. We also report the optimum fabrication process for maximum red emission at 614 nm from the samples where we show a strong dependence on the annealing temperature and the Eu3+ concentration in the sample. The maximum red emission is observed with 12 mol% Eu3+ annealed at 450 °C. This work provides a better understanding of the energy transfer mechanism from ZnO-nc to Eu3+ ions and is important for applications in photonics, especially for light emitting devices.