Facile Synthesis and Down-Conversion Emission of RE 3+ -Doped Lutetium Oxide Nanoparticles.

Lu2O3:RE3+ (RE3+ = Eu3+, Tb3+, Ho3+) nanoparticles have been successfully synthesized by a facile homogeneous precipitation method with subsequent sintering process. The crystal structure, morphology and luminescence properties of the as-prepared samples have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra. Upon ultraviolet (UV) and low-voltage electron beam excitation, Lu2O3:RE3+ (RE3+ = Eu3+, Tb3+, Ho3+) nanoparticles show strong red (Eu3+,5D0 → 7F2), green (Tb3+,5D4 → 7F5), and green (Ho3+,5S2 → 5I8) emissions. They exhibit a good advantage of multicolor emissions in the visible region, and endow these kinds of materials with potential application in many fields, such as light display systems, optoelectronic devices and biological imaging.