Optical and magnetic properties of nanostructured cerium-doped LaMgAl 11 O 19

Cerium-doped lanthanum magnesium bulk aluminate (La 1– x CexMgAl 11 O 19 , x = 0.03–0.50; abbreviated as LMA) was prepared via the Pechini sol–gel method after heating at 1200 °C for 2 h. The resulting single-phase ceramics was studied in terms of its structure using X-ray diffraction and optical properties using photoluminescence, its decay time, and radioluminescence spectroscopy. The diffraction and electron microscopy demonstrated LMA’s plate-shaped nanocrystals with structure anisotropy and relatively broad particle size distribution. The optical measurements fully manifested the complexity of the LMA crystal structure. The radioluminescence study of cerium-doped LMA is here presented for the first time and, thus, contributes to the basic knowledge of Ce-doped materials. Additionally, the magnetic susceptibility exhibiting paramagnetic behavior of Ce 3+ ions is presented. The magnetic data were interpreted in terms of local atomic Hamiltonian involving the crystal field and the Zeeman effect applied on the ground state J = 5/2 multiplet.