Preparation and the PL Properties of Er3+ - Ce3+ Co-Doped TiO2 Powders
The 0.5-3.0 mol% Er3+-Ce3+ co-doped TiO2 powders have been prepared by sintering the hybrid materials Er0.5Ce0.5(AA)3phen-doped TiO2/PMMA, which were prepared by sol-gel method, using the modified titanium (IV) n-butoxide [Ti(O-Bu)4-x(AAPhen)x] as precursors which were given by the chelate reaction between Ti(O-Bu)4, AA and Phen at 70°C. The hybrid matrix TiO2/PMMA improved the dispersion of Er3+, which caused an enhancement in the photoluminescence (PL) peak intensity at 1.53 mm of the 1 mol% Er (AA)3phen-doped TiO2/PMMA powders sintered at 700 °C of about 23 times higher than that only had TiO2 as its matrix. When co-doped with Ce3+, the above ratio of the PL peak intensity was raised to 75 times, which illustrated the obvious sensitization and dispersion effects of Ce3+ on Er3+.