White light emission from Er₂O₃ nano-powder excited by infrared radiation

Phosphors of Er₂O₃ nano-crystalline powders were synthesized by the thermal decomposition method. The structural properties of the nano-powders were investigated with XRD and HRTEM measurements. The cubic phase with a = 10.540 Å was the only phase observed. The average crystalline sizes and the widths of the grain size distribution curves were determined to be 27.2, 18.7 and 9.7 nm, respectively. The spectroscopic properties of the Er₂O₃ nano-powder were studied by measuring the luminescence, decay and rise patterns under 808 and 975 nm diode laser excitations. A peculiar effect of the pressure was observed since an optically active ion (Er) is part of the complex and not a dopant. A broad band of the white light emission combined with blue, green and red up-conversion emission bands of Er³⁺ ions were observed at 0.03 mbar pressure under both excitation wavelengths. Only, an intense broad band white light emission was observed from these nanocrystals at atmospheric pressure. Rising patterns show that the white light intensity reaches its maximum value more rapidly under 975 nm excitation although it decays slower than that of 808 nm excitation. The color quality parameters such as the color coordinate (CRI), correlated color temperature and the color rendering index were found to vary with both the excitation wavelength and the ambient pressure indicating that these nanocrystals could be considered good white light emitting source under the infrared excitations.