Defect Luminescence of Yag Nanopowders and Crystals

Undoped and rare-earth-ion-doped Y₃Al₅O₁₂ (YAG) nanopowders are prepared by the sol-gel low-temperature combustion method. The luminescence characteristics of the YAG, YAG: Ce, YAG:Pr, and YAG: Ce/Pr nanopowders are compared with those of the single crystals. The luminescence band peaking around 3.1 eV is complex and excited at about 3.6 eV, 3.9 eV and 4.3 eV. The 3.1 eV emission was peculiar to all the samples studied. The Stokes shift of this band is ~0.5 eV. The decay time of the ~3.1 eV emission at 80 K is ~14 ns and the slower decay (afterglow) components are practically absent. The 3.1 eV luminescence was suggested to arise from different intrinsic lattice defects.