EUROPEAN CONGRESS AND EXHIBITION ON ADVANCED MATERIALS AND PROCESSES - EUROMAT 2021

Over the past few decades there has been an extraordinary progress in the field of photonics and optoelectronics, which has led to the development of various materials and devices capable of manipulating and controlling the generation, transmission and transduction of light. The phenomenon of luminescence is exploited for large scale applications such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), optical fibres and lasers. The modulation of luminescence emission through external fields and stimuli has a significant application potential for light sources with variable colour and intensity as well as optical memories, switches and sensors.
The main goal of our work is the fabrication of ferroelectric materials whose photoluminescence emission, induced by the incorporation of small amounts of rare earth ions in the crystal lattice, can be modulated in intensity or colour, by the application of external physical stimuli, such as a temperature variation, and to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms behind the modulation process.
Recently, we have shown that the luminescence of europium-doped (1-x)BaTiO3 – xBaZrO3 (BZT, x = 0-1) is modified by the different polar order that can be encountered by changing both temperature and materials composition [1]. In this work, we will present our results on several compositions in the (1-x)Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3 – xBaTiO3 (BNBT) system, whose polar order can be modified by changing the composition x. Preliminary studies on powder synthesis, ceramics preparation, microstructural and dielectric characterisation and photoluminescence properties as a function of temperature of Eu-doped BNBT ceramics will be shown.
References. [1] G. Canu et al., Scientific Reports 9, 1–11 (2019).
Acknowledgements. This work was carried out in the framework of the project MODULA, funded by the Bank Foundation “Compagnia di San Paolo”.