Ceramics-Silikáty 46 (4) 121-126 (2002)

MICROSTRUCTURAL EFFECTS ON THE LUMINESCENCE INTENSITY OF Pr³⁺-doped CaTiO₃

P. Boutinaud, E. Pinel, G. Bertrand, R. Mahiou, P. Jakubcová, S. Kasa

The microstructural and luminescence characteristics of solid state (SS) and sol-gel (SG) processed CaTiO₃:Pr³⁺ powders have been investigated as a function of the grinding time t, in the case of SSt samples and of OH/Ti(OPr)₄ molar ratios r, in the case of SGr samples. It is observed that either extended post-synthesis grinding or sol-gel syntheses operated under acid or neutral conditions lead to submicron grained microstructures, CaTiO₃ + TiO₂ phase mixing and finally to less efficient phosphors. The observed decrease of luminescence intensity is correlated to the presence of non-luminescent rutile and to the amount of submicron particles.

Keywords: CaTiO₃, Luminescence, Microstructure, Praseodymium