Emission from Eu3+, Tb3+ ions and ZnO nanocrystals embedded in SiO2 film to obtain white light emission

Abstract

In the present study, a new method of emission from Europium (Eu3+) rare-earth (RE) ions and Terbium (Tb3+) RE ions co-doped with Zinc Oxide Nanocrystals (ZnO-nc) embedded in a Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) film was developed to produce white light emission. This method serves as a continuation that was based on previous studies done, where it determined the desired values of concentration needed from Eu3+and Tb3+ions to produce any colour in the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) colour space. This work would improve on the previous method achieved by developing a new approach to simplify and efficiently estimate the values needed. In this work a 5th degree polynomial equation was used to determine the concentrations of Eu3+and Tb3+ions needed to produce white light emission. Based on the 5th degree polynomial equation, it was found that 0.0108 and 0.0241 molar fractions were the concentration values need from Eu3+and Tb3+ions to produce white light.